Dear Steven,

Over the course of the last year, I am so grateful that I got to know you better. After seeing you sporadically since I first met you at a party you threw in Chicago, only over the last year have we had the good fortune of becoming your friend. I’m so glad
that we ended up in the same place and that we’ve had a chance to share memories. Your love of life (and fishing and Cindy) were infectious. Remember Mariko and I became the biggest “Cindy fans” - after you of course.

I remember at Sooyoung and Fiona’s wedding sitting outside the tackle shop by the Moroccan restaurant, planning all my first fishing purchases: a good Daiwa reel and a pole long enough for fishing in the surf. You sent me an email later with a long list of web-sites and recommendations. I took it with me to Japan and window-shopped there telling my parent-in-laws that I had a good buddy who was going to teach me how to fish. I even bragged in broken Japanese to the sales clerk at the store that I had a friend who could cast a hundred and fifty meters. Later I told you the story and you corrected me - a hundred and fifty feet. No wonder the look of incredulity from the Japanese clerk.

I remember you staying at Sooyoung and Fiona’s after we got back from Japan. You had just gotten out of the hospital and were always wearing pajamas. We had a nice pasta dinner and sat around talking. Your stories of your days in Chicago were so touching - how you looked back on an early part of your life when you looked at the world so differently with humor and self-respect.

We send our love and thoughts to you. Peace.

-Gene Park

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