Ben, Michele, Bob and Dylan
A very dear friend bought me "Salt in our Blood" as a Christmas present. As a resident of Lincoln County, I remember reading about the tragedy of the Nesika and I felt sad about that but not knowing your family it really didn't impact me directly at that time. I finished the book today and really couldn't put it down since I began reading it. It made me laugh at times and as a father,it made me cry. I also learned a lot about the fishing industry and its beauty and perils.
I now feel like I know Ben and what a wonderful life he had with such a supportive family and great friends. What a great adventurous spirit he had. His memory will live on to so many. I will honorably steal his phrase..learn, learn, learn, with the people close to me that I love!!
Thank you so much for sharing your story.
So it is three in the morning here in NYC. Strange indeed how such things remain the same. The website itself holds some relief for our memories. So I'm out to relate, a sadness and a presence which I think we both share. Somehow I've grown old indeed, but I still have a ramshackle beard and sweater. I think Ben would appreciate the shirt I'm wearing. I got it from a high school teacher in Panama. It concerns one of the truly great Panamanian festivals - El Toro Guapo, or the handsome bull. It is clearly imported from the Caribbean, and it has African drums in all mad house ruckus. This evening I went to a bar and had three distinct conversations with people which I think helped inspire another annual wake.
It is strange how the keys on the board bring feelings to the fore. Anyway, I continue to be touched, and humbled, by my friend, and I appreciate more perhaps those friends that I have now that he is gone.
Recently my grandfather died - another great hero from my experiencial epic. I don't really feel like he is gone, in some sense like I don't really feel Ben is gone. When we go about our quotidian lives, and we think that somehow we have forgone the ghost, and really lost ourselves once and for all, it is real that we have affected those in our lives in ways which are in fact real, and true, and inspiring.
So cheers to Ben, and his spirit roving in all of us.
Hello smiling face and the Eder family. I want to thank you for the copy of "Salt in our Blood". Having fished in Newport in the late 70s And living on a boat tied to dock 5 your book brought back a flood of memories many were pleasant and many are tinged with the sorrow of loss of friends like Dennis Ray of the Master Chris. I truly would have liked to have met Ben but by reading your book I somehow feel I have. May God bless the Eder family
your friend Larry Pfund
Hi Ben,
Yesterday Mr. Dempster sent me a note in the mail attached to a newspaper article about a man who writes tabloid stories just like we did in our little Psych. 2 class. That was so much fun with you and Jeff and Andrew. I still think of you, and miss you, and am inspired by you every day.
Hey Ben,
Think of you as always around this time. I'm back in Costa Rica for a visit. Somehow it seems appropriate that I should be writing to you from Latin America. Tori Stannard sent me a message from school that she was doing some research and came across a Reed thesis dedicated to "my immortal brother Ben Eder." It seems so right. I am "learn, learn, learn"-ing my way through school. I'm taking Russian and will be in Russia spring of next year. I will think of you there of course. Maybe I'll find a ridiculous fur hat and buy it in memory of you. I miss you, but I know you are still here in spirit.
Andy, thanks for the new pictures, and for keeping this website up. Bob, Michelle, and Dylan, I love you all and I am thinking of you also in this time. Hugs all around.
Love,
Frances
Dear Michele & Bob,
I've been thinking about Ben and you all day long. This evening Gretchen Nelson shared some of her adventures in Argentina with me. She mentioned that Ben inspired her to travel there. What an influence he was on people of all ages. I especially love the picture of Ben with a homemade birthday cake, which looked like a spaceman. Someone put alot of love and creativity into that cake! Thank you for sharing your pictures and his smiles with us! Love, Kath
Thanks, Andy, for this next round of pictures. It's so wonderful to see Ben's face again. It always helps the memories flow.
Ben, I still miss you like hell, as you know I always will. I have plenty of new stories to tell you, but I'm guessing you already know them. Your spirit is part of all my adventures, and for that, for everything, thank you again and again and again.
Love,
Lauren
P.S. "Learn, learn, learn" will get me through grad school.
If folks get a chance, go to the pictures section - we've added a new gallery, 2005.
Love,
Andy
4 years later and its still the most powerful day. Living with Peter now - you'd love that. We have big plans for tuna in your honor.
I miss you still.
Hey Ben!
Remember that time you were over at my apartment, and I was in the bedroom, and you yelled from the kitchen "can I have some cereal?" and I said "sure," and then I found you eating my entire brand-new box of lucky charms that I was really looking forward to, out of a mixing bowl with a gigantic wooden spoon?
That was pretty funny, in retrospect.