[Inspectorette]

The second and third pictures caused me to lose it again. The elderly white-haired lady, bereft in her grief.

I have asked myself so many times over the past nine days: why are we so grief-stricken that this great man has gone home to the Lord. He lived a wonderful life, he was 93 years old, and he was suffering, not to mention his beloved Nancy's suffering too.

But I still cannot stop my tears from flowing - the feeling of loss is like none I've felt since I lost my dear mother.

[Xenalyte]

I didn't even vote for the guy - was 15 when he was elected the second time - but I spent all last week crying.

[Wolfstar]

Inspectorette, I've only now read the entire thread and just wanted to take a moment to respond to your #25. I know what you mean. I also have been grieving as though for the loss of someone very dear to me. But that's the answer to your question. RWR was, and frankly remains, very dear to millions upon millions of people. It doesn't matter that we never knew him personally. The way he touched our lives is profoundly personal.

Think of the hundreds of millions of people in the former Soviet Union who are free today because of him. Their children and grandchildren will never experience the horrors of communism because of him. Many people have remarked that had RWR not selected his former political rival, GHWB, as his vice president there would have been no GWB presidency. So the people of Iraq and Afghanistan now have the opportunity to build free, democratic societies because of RWR's legacy.