email from Kevin, May 3, 2005:

Dear Mark,

Wanted to tell you again how much I've appreciated all your help over the past year. You're work and professionalism saved both Carolyn and me more time, frustration and money than I can calculate.

And thanks again for this past weekend in NYC. You did a spectacular job putting together a truly impressive forum for a ("our") unique and appreciative sector-satellite of the ever difficult and confusing medical world.

The attached picture (above) is really a highly rare medical film. It displays, in an explicitly raw fashion, a particular part of the human anatomy that is difficult to detect, even by the most expertly attuned clinicians anywhere in the world. I am speaking, of course, about my teeth. They have been a rare sight the past few years and you have certainly helped in their slow return to charted territory.

It was a pleasure to finally meet you in person, and Carolyn and I enjoyed putting voices, faces and handshakes to many familiar names -- all thanks to you. Toward the end of the day, you asked me whether Carolyn could have "written the same letter?" -- and you then unexpectedly needed to run to the podium. The short answer is "yes, and more." The longer answer is that I handed Carolyn a note during your wife's presentation that I started to write as soon as I saw the letter to your daughter go up on the screen. Basically, I facetiously wrote to Carolyn "Gee, thankful we can't relate to that unique set of circumstances." The truth, of course, is that we recognize in very fresh terms exactly the pain and damage serious, misunderstood and potentially untreatable (according to some of the "best" clinicians available) illness can inflict upon a family. In that context, it is so healthy and reassuring to see how your familial Phoenix rose from the ashes. That may be the best and most encouraging lesson of all to take from NYC.

slainte

kfl