THANK YOU ALL
FROM THE VOGEL FAMILY
This letter is to the 4,100 people who have posted messages on the Find Laura Vogel Facebook page, to the 7,600 who have visited the blogspot site, to the myriads of people who have set up fundraising events, to the people who have sent in tips to the gmail account and the police tip line, to the people who have organized candlelight vigils in her honor, to the hundreds who have made donations large and small to help us search for Laura, to the dozens who have sent us good wishes and remembrances and to the millions of prayers that have been said and are still being said for Laura and our family. By this first sentence alone you can see just how overwhelmed our family is by the response, not only of the people of Maui, but by the whole nation (world). We wish we could contact each and every one of you personally to say “Thank You”!
We know that many of you who do not live on Maui felt helpless while Laura’s friends and family were searching the areas where she went missing. But you did help. You helped by setting up and manning the Facebook and Blogspot and gmail sites on the internet. You helped by starting “LauraLights” and by adding Laura’s Legacy to the Kanu Hawaii web page. You helped through your fundraising, through your vigils, through your postings about your memories of times spent with Laura, by babysitting our sons, by house sitting while we were away, by filling in for us in our jobs. You helped by hugging trees, by hiking in Laura’s name and by showing your appreciation of nature. You helped in so many ways, not the least of which was through the prayers, love, and good wishes you sent our way.
By your responses you showed us what great effect Laura’s bright smile and fun loving personality had on everyone she met. And as you all know she was more than that. In her great delight in the world around her as teacher, hiker, camper, surfer, birder, stargazer, biologist, ecologist, sister, and daughter, she taught us that we need to protect our environment and everyone and everything in it. In her classrooms, which she designated as “safe zones,” she demonstrated to her students that we must respect and protect each other, regardless of who or what we are. Her students respected that attitude, and it is one reason why they have written that she was the best teacher they ever had.
Our hope is that by her example, Laura continues to teach us how to be good to each other and our surroundings. In New Mexico she gave of her free time to the New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors, Albuquerque Wildlife Federation and Wild Earth Guardians. In Hawaii she volunteered time to the Reef Teach Organization. She planted organic gardens, followed a vegetarian diet, and spoke to everyone about the need to be good stewards of God’s creation. You can honor Laura by embracing some of these same ideals in your own lives.
Thank you all for what you have done to help. It means a great deal to us, Laura’s family.
The Vogels
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I still pray for miracles...
ReplyDeleteDear Vogel Family,
ReplyDeleteI just learned of this heart-wrenching case - and want you to know that reading about Laura will impact me for the rest of my life, here in Hawai'i.
It will be two years next month since I, as a single woman, then aged 50, moved to Maui...I soon then moved to the island of Hawai'i - during the following January after meeting a man on match.com ...and I then went through a 7 month long abusive relationship (which was shocking to me 'at my age'). It is sad that even in 'Paradise,' a single woman is never safe alone in nature (and sometimes in their own home)...very sad.
I used to be an agnostic, but have had some very real spiritual experiences in the past few months that showed me that there is a God, and that God is 'The Divine Light of Love' which permeates everythng, as our souls find their way back to this indefinable source of Life... pure love...and that everything happens for a reason...to increase this love...
I learned during the experiences that we are all here to grow as much love as possible, to co-create with God, to contribute to the next plane of our existence...
It is clear that Laura's life on this Earth, in this dimension of our souls' travels, has brought much more love into existence than she could have imagined...as her life - her story - has touched others' souls (including mine), and so has strengthened their awareness of what really matters:
LOVE, and gratitude for Life itself.
I hope you do not mind my telling you that if she passed on, I believe, based on your post about her and my recent experiences here, that her soul IS now happy about this new part of 'our' reality.
I know that hearing that is not much personal or 'human' consolation, as you deal with what is real angst arising from having to find your way through the experience of a missing loved one, but it is an important and VITAL part of your new reality, and one I wanted to highlight in a post here.
Because you loved her, and still do, you will now all need to love your own lives even more...and one another... because of her, out of love for her, you can now grow even greater depths of love on many planes...
...that is the only way... to be thankful... to go on, and to not allow the sadness you feel to win... as, no amount of loss you feel can be allowed to be greater than the gratitude for your newly present opportunities for increased awareness and cultivation of any type of love you now have in your lives.
SHE gave that to you, and to all of those touched by her life...her soul gave this...it is for you now to cherish the new levels of love, and nourish them...live them, fully, and to not allow yourselves to dwell in despair or anger when tempted to.
Laura would not have wanted that...nor allowed it in her own life...She obviously loved life, and I am happy that I got to learn about her via your post. MAHALO for it.
My warmest aloha, and great sympathy,
Gina Kohman
Big Island resident