An e-mail from a law school classmate

My name is Jennifer Owen (Walsh), and I went to law school with Peggy. For years, I've been Googling her name- and of course I had misspelled it all along, and was not able to find out whatever happened to her after Villanova. I found her memorial page just now, and my heart is breaking. My heart is breaking for her family- her husband, and especially her precious daughter. Although we weren't close in law school (I guess we both weren't very social) I had always admired Peggy. She was simply brilliant, gorgeous, yet so very humble. She graduated at the very top of our class, but you'd never know it if you met her. She had that sweet, shy smile- she was quiet, but when she spoke, she was so introspective, thoughtful, and kind. I'm still in disbelief. I'm sorry to bother you all, but as you know Peggy touched so many people. I always knew she'd be destined for greatness- I guess she was too great for this world. May she rest in peace. I miss you, Peggy.

Susan G. Komen 3-Day

Pegs' sister, Nik, asked that I let you know that she'll be walking 60 miles over the course of three days (October 5, 6, and 7) for an event called the Susan G. Komen 3-Day™. Net proceeds from the 3-Day support ground-breaking research and scientific programs, as well as grants for education, screening and treatment programs at both the national and local level in an effort to eradicate breast cancer. 

Please show Nik your support by making a donation in memory of Pegs.  To make a donation, go to The3Day.org, click on "Donate" and search for Nik's personal fundraising page under the name "Nikoleta Alexandropoulos".  Nik's goal is to raise $2,300; with your help, I'm confident we can get there.  Click here to visit Nik's personal page. 

Thanks to everyone in advance, and be sure to let me know if you or someone you know is participating in an event near you so I can help spread the word.

Pegs' Birthday

As a lot of you know, it was Pegs' birthday today, her 36th. When I got to the office this morning I had already received a number of e-mails and Facebook posts expressing birthday greetings and well-wishes, and they continued to come in throughout the day. Thanks so much to everyone who wrote, called, texted, posted or otherwise took a moment of your day to think about Pegs.

When Pegs and I first met, she told me that she wasn't particularly big on birthdays. She said that name days were more important in her family, as were religious holidays; birthdays were typically a more muted affair. But in 2009, as Pegs was finishing up her first series of chemotherapy treatments, she told me that she wanted a big party for her birthday that year: lots of friends, food, drinks ... the works.  Unfortunately, she didn't express this desire until her birthday was already upon us, a moment when I was coming home from the office well past midnight every night.  Fortunately, Pegs' friend Brooke swooped in to the rescue and helped me find a great venue: a rooftop apartment with a fantastic view of the Eiffel Tower.  I booked a caterer, bought a bunch of booze and invited all of our anglophone friends in Paris, and in short order we had ourselves a birthday party.  It might just have been the champagne, but as I recall everyone had a great time, especially Pegs.  It was so wonderful to see her happy that night after all she had been through; she was surrounded by people she loved and who loved her, and she was able to forget about all of her worries and just enjoy herself for the first time in a long while.  For those of you who were there, thank you so much for helping to make that night so special; for those who couldn't be there, I hope that you can appreciate how happy Pegs was in the pictures below.  Happy birthday, my love.

Mother's Day / Susan G. Komen Race

Today was Mother's Day in the US, which was a somewhat bittersweet event in the Alexanderpool household. I started the day by participating in the Susan G. Komen Philadelphia chapter's Race for the Cure event, a 5k run dedicated to raising funds for breast cancer research and women's health care initiatives with all proceeds going to Delaware Valley-area institutions. Pegs and I ran the same race when we first arrived in 2010, so to say that it brought back a number of memories would be a bit of an understatement. There were an estimated 45,000 participants this year, many of them wearing pink tags indicating that they were racing in celebration of or in memory of someone. I saw a number of women who were clearly either undergoing treatment or just recovering from it, most of them surrounded by their friends and loved ones running with them. I was happy to support the event and celebrate the fight that so many of these women were clearly winning, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't also somewhat angry (or at least embittered) that Panagiota wasn't one of them. I found myself at the very front of the crowd of runners, and when the starting gun was fired, I took off much faster than my usual jogging pace. I was running almost recklessly, as if I wanted to get away from a guilty sense of resentment towards the happy survivors, when I saw Sofia on the side of the road with Yia Yia, Papou, Nik, Young, Alex and Eva. In a split second I remembered why I was really running, and a quick high-five from Sofia drove me to continue at the same pace through the rest of the course: not out of a sense of anger and frustration, but out of a sense of hope, love and concern for those who loved and were loved by Pegs. When I met up with everyone after the race, I asked Sofia if she knew why I had run in the race; she thought about it for a second before replying, "You ran to win, Daddy." I did indeed, and I think I could say the same for everyone who participated today. Happy Mother's Day, Pegs; we miss you.

View of the crowd at the race; May 13, 2012

After the race; May 13, 2012

Why I ran today; May 13, 2012

Why I'll continue to run; May 13, 2012

Christmas Recipes

Paris; 13 December 2008

The Christmas holidays are long since over and we just wrapped up Easter (both Greek and regular), but since I organized all of Pegs' recipes into an album a while back I thought I should share these with you to help keep up the holiday spirit. I can only remember one time when she made the sugar cookie recipe (see picture at right), for a pre-Christmas party in 2008. Derek and Ariel were living in Paris at the time, and we invited them and our friends Brooke and Dave (and of course, their son Felix) to come over and drink mulled wine, eat sugar cookies and make paper snowflakes. If memory serves, Pegs was dissatisfied with how the cookies turned out (even though they were absolutely delicious), and everyone enjoyed the mulled wine immensely.

Paris; 13 December 2008

Paris; 13 December 2008

Paris; 13 December 2008

Click the link below to check out the recipes for Pegs' sugar cookies and mulled wine.

Easter and gardening

Below are a few videos from Easter 2011. Pegs was filming, but you can hear her talking about all of the things we needed to do in the garden while I "egged" Sofia on.  Sorry; I couldn't resist.  In one of the videos you can see all of the tulips that we planted earlier that spring. I've also attached some pictures of the garden, which Pegs loved so much, including the tulip bed.

Japanese magnolia, daffodils and day lilies we planted near the garage.

One of the dogwoods in front of the house.

Yellow tulips in the front bed.

The rest of the tulips in the front bed.

View of the vegetable garden and the pear and apple trees behind them.

Senior Yearbook Pictures

Rachna Patel was kind enough to send us some pictures from Panagiota's senior yearbook. High school is a difficult time for a lot of kids, and I know that Panagiota was no exception, but she may have been more fortunate than most to have come out of it with such strong and enduring friendships. I don't know many people who would want to fly from New York to Sacramento for a high school friend's wedding, or from anywhere to Omaha (with no offense to Steve Bishara or Warren Buffet) to visit a high school friend just to say hi. Panagiota may not have made friends easily, but she certainly made them for life.

Christmas Memories

Croix; April 26, 2008

Posted (belatedly) on behalf of Ingrid (Malfait) Guilbaud: 

I remember very well when both Pegs and I announced to the family that we were pregnant. It was at Patricia's place, where we met for one of our traditional family lunches. After a while Lee told me: congratulations for your pregnancy, we are so happy we decided to do the same! 

Although the due dates were quite different (early Nov and early Dec), Sofia decided to come to life a bit earlier than expected, and only 5 days after Louise. 

It was such a wonderful perspective to have these two cousins so close in age. Pegs and I were looking forward to see them playing together (we still have to fulfill this wish, Lee!). Thanks to our regular meetings in Lille, we were able to see them growing and changing, comparing the sizes (that was quite easy) and exchanging tricks on best ways to make them sleep full nights. As you see in the picture at right, only our beloved Bon Papa was kind (and open minded!) enough to let us change baby diapers on his own bed! 

Pegs was always adorable with Louise, playing with her, offering us to take care of her while we were eating at the restaurant at Bon Papa's place. 

If you ask Antoine about what Pegs makes him think about, quickly the word food will come in the conversation. One day we were invited in at the very last minute (about a few hours before) with some friends of ours at Lee and Pegs' and she cooked a wonderful roasted chicken. It would have taken me one week to think about it, get the ingredients and several hours to prepare it! 

I also remember that for one of the Christmases we spent in Bondues, she prepared food gifts for each of us that she made herself and presented in very nice packages. I thought it was such a nice idea to put part of yourself in Christmas gifts....as we are celebrating Christmas today, I will have a special thought about this moment in Pegs' memory. 

Click on the link below to see pictures of Pegs and Ingrid pregnant together and videos of Pegs playing with Louise and Sofia. 

Meixes

Sofia has been having a bit of an issue lately with ingesting her ... well, her boogies. I'm sure it's a phase most kids go through, especially in the winter, but the other day when I saw Sofia digging for nasal gold, I was reminded of Pegs' least favorite word: meixes (pron: meek-ses), which is the Greek word for snot, boogers or anything else you might call the stuff that comes out of your nose. I don't know why she had such an aversion to that word in particular; English terms for the same stuff didn't seem to phase her, and I personally saw her wipe Sofia's nose on multiple occasions without being the slightest bit squeamish. But if you said "meixes" around her, she would usually close her eyes and shudder involuntarily a bit before she punched you in the arm. Hard. Go figure.

Movie Snacks

I took Sofia to a movie this weekend, and since it was a late afternoon show I got some snacks so Sofia wouldn't get too hungry before dinner. We were at the concession stand, waiting to place our order, and while looking at the various candies behind the counter I was reminded that Panagiota used to enjoy Swedish Fish. She didn't always get them when we went to the movies; most of the time she wouldn't get anything, and on occasion she would get something else entirely. I always thought it was interesting when she chose Swedish Fish, however, since I don't know of anyone else who actually enjoys them. For some reason, Pegs really used to like them, though. Now that I think about it, maybe it was because she knew that I wouldn't ask her to share them with me. If so, well played, Pegs; well played....