Thursday, December 08, 2005
Frank and Gretchen
My cousin, Frank Andrew, and his wife, Gretchen Life, are missing.
Frank spent the last year building a sailboat, and they took it out on its maiden voyage on Saturday morning, in Lake Ponchartrain, the enormous lake to the north of New Orleans.
Monday afternoon, the boat was found capsized. The coast guard, the police, and friends and family have been searching for them, but there has been no sign. It is now Thursday morning in New Orleans, and the weather has turned cold and windy. None of us has completely given up hope of a miracle happening, but the chances seem quite slim at this point.
Frank and I were about the same age. I don't have any brothers or sisters, and I guess my cousins are the closest thing to siblings that I have. I've been through a lot of different emotions as you might imagine.
I've moved to a new hotel room here in Mumbai with good internet access, and tried to do what I could from here. I helped to arrange a flight and a rental car for Frank's mother, my aunt Lois. I spread the word as best I could, including contacting my New Orleans friends, some of whom know Frank and Gretchen. That led to additional boats and a plane being added to the search effort. But still no sign of them.
I have bitched and moaned a bit in past entries in this blog about my friend and associate, Mike, the one who was running some of my company's webservers in New Orleans before hurricane Katrina. As of a few days ago, relations with Mike were somewhat strained on both ends. But Frank and Gretchen were friends with Mike, and as soon as he heard about their disappearance, all misgivings and grievances were immediately set aside. Mike was the one who arranged a plane and additional searchers in boats. So I am grateful to Mike for that, and touched by his concern and his efforts.
Frank had described his work on this boat in detail on his website. I just checked the site, and it has exceeded its bandwidth limit, obviously from so many people who are curious about it now that they are missing. So I won't put a link to it here. However, I will try to identify who the internet service provider was, and contact them to see about getting it back online for friends and family who want to see it. The site also includes a blog and other writings, wedding photos, and other content.
Both of them are 39. Gretchen was in her last year of medical residency, and I've been impressed by her as one of the best doctors I've known. Frank retired from a career in business two years ago, and along with other projects he has been working diligently on his first science fiction novel. They impressed everyone as good, kind, honest, helpful, thoughtful, responsible people.
A sad day.
Frank spent the last year building a sailboat, and they took it out on its maiden voyage on Saturday morning, in Lake Ponchartrain, the enormous lake to the north of New Orleans.
Monday afternoon, the boat was found capsized. The coast guard, the police, and friends and family have been searching for them, but there has been no sign. It is now Thursday morning in New Orleans, and the weather has turned cold and windy. None of us has completely given up hope of a miracle happening, but the chances seem quite slim at this point.
Frank and I were about the same age. I don't have any brothers or sisters, and I guess my cousins are the closest thing to siblings that I have. I've been through a lot of different emotions as you might imagine.
I've moved to a new hotel room here in Mumbai with good internet access, and tried to do what I could from here. I helped to arrange a flight and a rental car for Frank's mother, my aunt Lois. I spread the word as best I could, including contacting my New Orleans friends, some of whom know Frank and Gretchen. That led to additional boats and a plane being added to the search effort. But still no sign of them.
I have bitched and moaned a bit in past entries in this blog about my friend and associate, Mike, the one who was running some of my company's webservers in New Orleans before hurricane Katrina. As of a few days ago, relations with Mike were somewhat strained on both ends. But Frank and Gretchen were friends with Mike, and as soon as he heard about their disappearance, all misgivings and grievances were immediately set aside. Mike was the one who arranged a plane and additional searchers in boats. So I am grateful to Mike for that, and touched by his concern and his efforts.
Frank had described his work on this boat in detail on his website. I just checked the site, and it has exceeded its bandwidth limit, obviously from so many people who are curious about it now that they are missing. So I won't put a link to it here. However, I will try to identify who the internet service provider was, and contact them to see about getting it back online for friends and family who want to see it. The site also includes a blog and other writings, wedding photos, and other content.
Both of them are 39. Gretchen was in her last year of medical residency, and I've been impressed by her as one of the best doctors I've known. Frank retired from a career in business two years ago, and along with other projects he has been working diligently on his first science fiction novel. They impressed everyone as good, kind, honest, helpful, thoughtful, responsible people.
A sad day.
