Grief, Healing,
and Learning
A TRIBUTE SITE DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF
MATTHEW WAYNE SHEPARD
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MATTHEW WAYNE SHEPARD |
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THE STORY OF MATTHEW WAYNE SHEPARD (1976–1998) deeply affected millions of people around the world — including me. It continues to do so. It brought many of us together who might not otherwise have met. A notable common experience for us was the grief we endured over the death of this young man — someone we had never known.
I knew, as early as November 1998, that I wanted to build a Web site in Matt's memory. It sometimes required considerable effort — partly because of the subject matter, but also because there were times when other demands kept me from finishing the project. Yet the work was never for one day very far from my mind.
The links are at the bottom of this page. The memorial page tells, from my own personal viewpoint, how I was struck by Matt's experience — his final days, his untimely death, the tributes to him from his family and friends. It tells how I dealt with the grief through the Judeo-Christian teachings that I have learned to rely on — particularly the teachings of Jesus and the Apostle Paul. And it shares a few insights l was compelled to learn from the experience.
Jim Hastings
A note about the Memorial page: As the central, dominant feature in the site, the Memorial page, in particular, is best read deliberately and thoughtfully, when you have some time to sit quietly and let it "take."
The MIDI track that accompanies the page plays once, no looping, and has approximately 9½ minutes of excerpts that I arranged myself from Acts IV and V of Giuseppe Verdi's Don Carlo. See the Musical Backgrounds page.
I recommend setting your audio at a moderate volume — just enough volume to show what your sound system can do, yet restrained enough so that you can hear yourself think and concentrate on the written message. If you're like me, you'll probably find that this method makes the strongest emotional impact and gives the best overall effect.
The finest renderings I've heard are on desktop computers, not laptops. High-quality speakers, widely spaced on the desk from left to right, should do justice to the music, delivering good treble-bass contrast and optimum stereo effect.
Original site texts copyright © 2002–2008 by Jim Hastings. All rights reserved. Any similarities to the texts of other writers are entirely coincidental.
The inclusion of external links on some pages of the site does not imply endorsement, by the owners of the external sites, of any material presented here. The views and opinions expressed on other sites are, to the best of my knowledge, those of their authors and may or may not coincide with mine.
J. H.
Last site update: October 24, 2008
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