In Memory of Alexa Ann Nowak

My beautiful amazing wife. My best friend. The sassy center of my universe.

If you have this link, then she touched your life too. In all the ways that Lex worked magic, she probably made your life the better having known her. If you knew her, you knew her smile, her generosity, her wry humor and her fearlessness in the dark. You knew her goth tastes and her love of horror and black cats. You knew her unapologetic love of her friends and family.

When we were given the final news, it took much of the day for us to absorb it. Like a mountain had been dropped on top of us. We had been in this life-and-death struggle for three years, without relent. And it was indescribable, suddenly knowing that we only had so much time left together. But after we accepted it--or got close enough to accepting it that we started to make real plans--Lex, indomitable as she was, asked for three things.

One, to be able to die at home.

Two, that she wanted to be a tree. A white oak tree. Big and protective and beautiful in the fall. She wanted kids to read under her and couples to snuggle under her and she wanted to be a shelter in the rain.

And three, that she didn't want sadness when she passed. She wanted us all to be together, all of us who knew her and had adventures with her, and to trade pages from each other's books about our time with her. Each of us has a story that no one else has. And the time would come to share those. And lasagna needed to be there. She was adamant about that. Good conversation, a variety of lasagna, pierogies and drinks, and a celebration of her life. To, in her words, 'eat and drink our damn feelings' with gusto.

And so I desperately need your help with that. To buy the lot where she wanted to be planted. To rent the space so that we all can celebrate her heart and her talent. And to bring you all together to do it. The way she wanted to be remembered. A day worthy of all that she gave to us in her lifetime.

Please help if you can.