This Saturday will be 8 years since our daughter Jaime was murdered in the Parkland shooting. For those who know my family well, you know just how hard this week is for us. Thankfully, we have our dogs to support us & lift us. Trust me, our dogs Cooper & Charli were & are a part of our ability to move forward. They are the inspiration behind the PAWS OF LOVE program from our foundation Orange Ribbons For Jaime. Please watch this video about Orange Ribbons for Jaime to learn more about the work that we do and if so inclined, please donate. Thank you.
@RefilweSeboko Yes. Had my one and only healthy daughter at 44 yo. No intervention. Two pregnancies at 43. Miscarried first at 10 weeks. My daughter was born one day before her due date. Sheās 15 and an amazing teenager! Best wishes to you.
Tomorrow is my 60th birthday. Put another way, I have been alive for approximately 21,900 days. In my life, I have had many days filled with great minutes and memories from the birth of my children to meeting and marrying my wife. Together, we have celebrated so many great memories with our family and friends. We have celebrated birthdays, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other life milestones such as graduations and anniversaries. Some highlight dates for me are 11/11/2000 when Jesse was born and 7/13/2003 when Jaime was born and of course 4/11/99 when my wife Jen and I got married. Simply put, I have had a lot of great days. The greatest gift of my life is having the great fortune of being a dad to Jesse and Jaime. Below is a family photo taken on my 52nd birthday, 8 years ago in 2017.
Unfortunately, it was our last complete family photo as my life has also had a lot of heartache. My daughter Jaime was murdered in the Parkland school shooting less than two months after my 52nd birthday almost 8 years ago on 2/14/2018. My brother Michael died of cancer only 4 months before that on 10/17/2017. As my Rabbi said at Jaimeās funeral āwe donāt move on, we move forward.ā In the years following Jaimeās murder, moving forward for me meant putting my life focus into advocacy and politics. I am truly proud of the work that I did with so many amazing people and of the real change that we brought to America. However, my time at this exhausted me emotionally and took me away from my family far too often. That is why in the past year I made a change. Moving forward for me now has involved stepping back from advocacy and political work. I did not retire. I started living again.
Despite the always present heartache, I have put a lot of work into moving forward and my future will involve anything that I can do to create life memories that bring happiness to those I love. My son, my wife, my family, and my friends deserve that from me. I look forward to a future of new celebrations and memories now involving my son Jesse and the other young adults who are a part of our life.
Going forward, while I wonāt be as busy with advocacy, my wife and I will remain fully committed to our foundation Orange Ribbons for Jaime which we started to honor Jaimeās memory. The work we are doing with our PAWS OF LOVE initiative to support victims and survivors of gun violence truly honors Jaimeās memory in the best way possible. If you are so inclined, a donation to the foundation would be greatly appreciated. The donation link is https://t.co/UGPzr0Oi8L
This past year has truly opened my eyes to how removed I was during my years of advocacy and how much living I missed. For my 60th birthday, I DONāT NEED OR WANT ANYTHING, with one exception. I just want to know that everyone who I know and love is well. I personally want a day of happiness and peace, and I really want everyone who I know and love to take the day to do something you like and to find peace. I also would love messages from you letting me know that you are ok.
If you have been a part of my life and if you have shared any of my 21,900 days with me, thank you for making my life more meaningful. I am looking forward to the days and years ahead, the living to be done, and the new memories to be made.
@Julius_Kim@albertksfong1 Happy anniversary! My Dad was a respected attorney in Milwaukee for over 50 years and volunteered at the Marquette legal aid center until he was 90. Keep up the great work!
We have people in power making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproven. The degree to which those comments can undermine public health, do harm to women who are pregnant, create anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic ā is violence against the truth.
After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesnāt like. https://t.co/uts7JpJZzN
Amid so much global sadness and violence, let us remember a man, an actor, an activist: Robert Redford, who spent his whole career digging deep and making us think.
I think about my brother Dr. Michael Guttenberg every day, but today more than most. My brother was a true hero of 9/11. He was inside setting up a triage for patients when the buildings collapsed. He survived and spent weeks at ground zero taking care of people. Unfortunately, in October of 2017 he passed from the cancer that he got from all that he breathed in. Whenever I think of my brother, I think of heroes. Looking at what happened in this country yesterday and the reality of political violence and all gun violence in America, and I truly hope for some elected heroes to step up today to do what needs to be done to take the temperature down and to reduce violence.