Anne asked us to pass this on to you guys. Thanks
a lot for writing her in her time of sorrow. It made a big difference!
Thanks so much to my friends from the DBR community for your condolences during this difficult time following my mother's death.
She was a strong and wonderful person, and we will miss her terribly. My father was a Duke graduate, and my mother loved Duke University with all her
heart. I will especially miss her calling me long distance from Greensboro, and saying, "Do you know the Duke game is on?" She leaves behind five
children (Henry, Jr.; Forrest, Rea, Helen [Morton], and me}. Also eleven grandchildren, including my son Aaron, and five great-grandchildren. If you
know any of the Ferrell offspring and want to send condolences, I will pass them along. Again, thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers, and I look
forward to writing back to everyone when I get home.
We originally posted this last night. Anne wrote
at about 2:30 and said that her Mom had continued to worsen. She held her mother
as she died early this morning. Anne is one of our favorite people and her
e-mail just about broke our heart. Our deepest condolences to Anne, her son Aaron, Cliff, Jennifer and the rest of her
family. Â
Our great friend Anne B. Ferrell, known to many of you as ABF through the
board or through chat, is going through a very difficult time as her mom is
likely near death. Not surprisingly, given what we've come to know of the
Ferrells, she has a fighting spirit and is battling remarkable odds.
Nonetheless, she is elderly and it will be hard to fight much harder than she
has.
If you'd like to drop Anne a line of support, you can do so at abferrell@netscape.net,
which is a traveling address. We tried it and one bounced back, so we're not
sure it's working. If it isn't, you can also e-mail her at her regular address brittany@icx.net,
but please try the other one first as she might not get to check her regular
address for awhile. Anne's one of the nicest people we know, and our
hearts go out to her at this very difficult time. All of us have had
difficult losses at one time or another, and it really helps to put trivial
stuff like basketball in perspective. We doubt seriously that anyone at
Ricky Byrdsong's funeral was thinking about rivals they hated, or at Michael
Hooker's funeral either, for that matter.Â
So if you're a Duke fan drop a nice line of support, and if you're not a Duke
fan, just do a human kindness for a really really good person whose heart is
exceedingly heavy right now. We're pretty sure it would make a huge difference
to her as she prepares for the most difficult task any child has to undertake.Â
If you've gone through it you'll understand. If you haven't, someday you
will. We hope the milk of human kindness flows for Anne now, in her time of need, and for you when your time comes as well. Godspeed to Mrs. Ferrell.