Thursday, January 20, 2011

Dear Jonathan,

I remember when you were born they announced over the loud speaker at Horace Mann for Samantha and I to go to Mr Fountains office and we couldn't run fast enough. I remember waiting for you to come home from the hospital and seeing you for the first time, our beautiful blond cherub.

I remember watching you grow into a mischevous little boy- running never walking (like Cooper), playing with our friends and giggling when you mimicked us, being wheeled around in a wagon at the beach with the Barams and Goulds cackling, and squeeling, and later sneaking out with us on the boardwalk after your bedtime and breaking your leg on the back of Tammy's bike (that was the one time in our lives Samantha and I got grounded!).

As a young boy I remember you as a star athlete, the funniest and smartest and sweetest boy in the class, winning EVERY prize at field day. As a young man, I remember blasting Billy Joel with you, loving your bear hugs, helping you pick out gifts and a commitment ring for Jen, family vacations (our happiest times), and driving with Jay Z on the radio, then ipod. You picked my wedding song of course, Uptown Girl, you took care of us and fiercely protected "the family" and you spent every Sunday with us barbecuing at the beach, and cuddling up at mom and dad's in the winter.

We lost you before Cooper's first birthday, but we know you saved him when the rattle cracked in his mouth, and he knows you are his guardian angel. Today he is going to sports class and he will be wearing his Horace Mann jersey with your number, 32, and when he runs so fearlessly and blissfully I see you. Wishing you a day filled with writing, and analyzing and sunshine and kisses from Fluffy and Daisy and Lilly, and love and when you have a spare second come visit us because everything we do we do for you.

Love, Sabrina

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Jonathan's 28th Bday Card from Samantha

Dear Jonathan,

It is the night before your 28th birthday. In our past, wonderful life, we would all be going to the office together tomorrow, and giving you birthday kisses, and mom would probably say “what do you want to do special for your birthday lunch” and you would say “nothing, just eat here with the family.” You have been talking about the Verizon I phone for years (I know from JP), so of course, we would be getting you that as a present. In my heart I am imagining the one JP gets as being for you. Tomorrow night, we will go to mom and dad’s and what will we have? Either dad will make your favorite spaghetti and meatballs OR we will order first wokadoo, eggrolls, chicken and broccoli, wonton eggdrop soup. Saturday night the family will all go to the Palm and you will have a wedge, extra vinaigrette on the side (you and I love and appreciate a good vinaigrette so much!) and then the filet mignon, medium almost well, but never butterflied. Then you will go out to meet your friends and we will go home to put chase and cooper to bed.

I am thinking so much of all of our years together, and I feel so so lucky to have you as my brother. You are the best brother anyone could have – you are the sweetest, the most supportive, the most generous and thoughtful (I remember the doll you bought mom one year for Christmas, and the way you sat with me when I was on bedrest with Chase, so genuinely interested in what it was like to be growing another person in my stomach, and you were only 22 years old), you are the funniest and smartest and at once most modest and also most confident kid, you are so excited and hopeful and appreciative of life. I have the most amazing memories of you, because I got to watch you grow up – don’t forget I felt like your second mother (sometimes to the point you would get so mad at me – “stop being my mother” you would yell and “don’t use that tone with me!”) – memories of you running down the hallway when you must have been 18 months old, blond curls everywhere, in footy pajamas, coming to kiss me goodnight as I was doing homework, the summer you turned two and got chicken pox (even in your eyeball) and had to wear gloves and a little white bathrobe and you couldn’t go in the pool which was so upsetting because it was the first summer we had one, the summer you became obsessed with ghostbusters and even when it was 90 degrees you stood at the pool in your little proton pack and ghostbusters outfit (thank goodness we have a photo of you dressed up), all your little outfits, the pink blazers and madras bowties, swimming in the ocean at boca together (the ocean uker), you watching “photography,” watching clueless together with Sabrina the year in boca we were all in one room, you in a cot, taking you to see forrest gump, years before that your coming with us to see basic instinct and mom sticking the popcorn bag over your head, you never letting us eat the “poopycoon” until the movie started, holding the bag on the floor and guarding it, Cecilia, driving to Pittsburgh every year, you in the middle seat of the car, baking brownies with all of mine and sabrina’s friends, dancing in the dining room at the boca beach club with our favorite waiter skipper, you always being with all our friends, especially jimmy nissenson (he adored you) and roger Mincheff, your coming up to Penn visiting weekend and going crazy for the cinnabons at the food court and deciding you wanted to go to Penn simply bc you loved the food, when I had the taxi accident and we went to helaine’s house in florida together and you helped me get up and down the steps on my crutches, then we all started to get a little older, bringing Fluffy, Daisy and Lily to your football games at HM, visiting you in the hospital when you had shoulder surgery and mom slept on a chair in your room every night, chinooz badooz, what’s for lunch badunch, zsaka, baka, make the spell go on!, taking pictures at mom and dad’s of you and jen going to the prom, helping you pick out a lavender cashmere sweater for her at Ralph lauren because you wanted her to dress like us, visiting you at Emory your freshman year and we had that huge buffet breakfast at the Ritz and then you said you wanted to take us to this really cool ice cream place that was going to be HUGE and we said, no, we cant eat another thing, and three ice cream sundae’s later at Coldstone (we should have listened to you!)…, you always had the best ideas for inventions, if only we had let you invent…Billy Joel music, you all went to the concert when I was on bedrest and you kept calling me and letting me hear him singing and then you downloaded me the concert afterwards (I cant bear to listen to it anymore). So many memories, our happiest time will ALWAYS be our childhood, all together, the original 5. I know how lucky I am to have had you, but I cant help but feeling so beyond unlucky to have lost you so early, I always imagined us together forever, and I know we are together forever, I know it, just not right here together where we want you.

You more than anyone else believed so much in the legacy of our family, and believed that we would all do such incredible things, i think this year my birthday wish for you is that we live up to your expectations of us, and that we make you proud every single day. I miss you more than you can imagine and love you so much forever and ever and ever. Thank you for giving me an angel in my stomach, I will protect it as you are protecting all of us. Happy Birthday my baby brother and guardian angel. Love you. Samantha
PS- Chase is making you a card tomorrow, he said he is going to throw it up into the air so it gets to you in heaven. Should we do that? I told him we will keep it here because you are here with us, always. Love you.

Jonathan Speech for Ralph Lauren Event November, 2010

My brother Jonathan was a true Ralph Lauren boy. Much of our childhood was spent across the street at the original mansion shopping with mom- there was even a blog a former salesperson emailed to us recently, about her being the first person he ever saw talking on a cell phone, while madly shopping with what he referred to as her beautiful blond little boy, who was of course my brother. Jonathan was Ralph Lauren everything – pink blazers, maddress bowties and white pants when he was little, every color cable cashmere, rugby and polo t shirt as he got older. His room was a Ralph Lauren ad. The first present he got his highschool sweetheart was a lavender cable cashmere, because she always wore black, and he wanted her to look more like me and Sabrina, which was so fitting for my brother, because our family was EVERYTHING to him – he even referred to our family with a capital F.

Jonathan was the most incredible athlete, known on the field as captain of the Horace Mann football and lacrosse teams as “Killer Kleier.” It was his passion and excellence in athletics that helped us to name the fund you are all supporting tonight – the Jonathan Kleier ’01 Lion Fund, named for the Horace Mann Lions, Jonathan’s biggest source of pride.

Off the field he was a teddy bear, so incredibly full of love, the sweetest child, kindest young adult, innocent, happy and hopeful, loyal, trustworthy, he saw the best in everyone. It is very fitting that Jonathan’s favorite of all the Ralph Lauren brand was the Teddy Bear line – he had t shirts, towels, bedding. Our boys Chase and Cooper are wearing teddy bear sweaters tonight. Jonathan gave the most incredible teddy bear hugs, he was strong and protective – my family always said if we ever got stuck on a desert island Jonathan was the one we wanted with us – you knew that he could save you.

We lost Jonathan completely out of the blue, at age 26, a little over a year ago, of a virus to the heart called myocarditis. A few months after it happened, my sister and I reached out to our friend David Lauren, because after calling every store and outlet, we were able to find very few teddy bear items, and we were hoping he could help us track some down. What came from that conversation is this most amazing shopping night, which will benefit Jonathan’s fund at Horace Mann. David, and everyone who helped put this evening together, especially Debra Kanibus, Laird Roach and Missy Pool, we cannot thank you enough – our family is completely overwhelmed with gratitude.

We also want to thank all of you for being here tonight -we hope you brought your credit cards to shop tonight, or buy gift cards and use them forever. There are also some very special Teddy Bear items that David was able to bring back to sell tonight, so we hope you will all purchase some in honor of Jonathan.

Although Jonathan is not here physically with us, we are completely positive he is still with us in every other way, and he is so incredibly excited that there is a party at the Ralph Lauren mansion for him tonight. Jonathan, as you always say “Love You!” The Family.

And now, we’d like to introduce the head of Horace Mann and our very close friend, Dr. Tom Kelly.