Washington, D.C., Tues., 2nd. February, 1999

I am so saddened hearing about your loss of Cyrus. 

Words cannot sufficiently describe what you have been through, nor can condolences alleviate your grief. There is, however, Almighty God in Heaven. As creator of Heaven and earth, He knows exactly what He is doing. To Him we can turn for strength, for balm for our hurts and grief. Unto Him I would entrust you all; the One who has the whole world in His hand. He will wipe away your tears, and give you joy to replace your grief.

Cyrus is now with the Lord, of Him we know: the Judge of all the earth will do right. So it is not Cyrus where my thought are with. It is with you sister Minou, you Laila, you Arto, and you mas Adji. I imagine: what would Cyrus want for you? I am sure he would want you to love each other, to go on with life, remember all the good things you had together, being grateful to God for allowing to have these 25 precious years of knowing and loving Cyrus, and knowing you have loved him well! That's right, you have loved him well.

 
Mas Raden, it was so precious what you shared with me. For instance what Cyrus would have felt about his big brother: ...whenever he was in trouble that he could count on him..... Awesome! that was so well said! Knowing that there is big brother to count on! Indeed, you have loved him right! 

Let your memories bring you flowers in this winter of sorrow; let a grateful heart to Almighty God for all the 25 years of knowing and loving Cyrus bring you His peace and comfort during this hurting. 

I pray that not only would you be able to accept Cyrus' passing, but that you would be able to praise Almighty God for Cyrus' death. Impossible to even think about it at this time, but with His help even the impossible is doable. 

May God bless and keep you.

ps: I am so touched you let me share in your grief. God bless you, God bless all of you! The Lord loves you all. JL

Since the day you called, we (Tatjana and I) have been thinking about Cyrus almost constantly, and we are very, very sad. Although we have been living in Germany for almost fourteen years now, Cyrus was a part of our lives in Indonesia, and part of Tatjana's childhood.(Cyrus & Tjana on his left).

When I had to tell her the terrible news that evening, when she returned from the mountains from snow boarding, she was terribly upset. She refused dinner and had tears in her eyes the whole evening. She kept on saying: “I know I should not think like this, but there is nothing I can do about it. Why did it happen to Cyrus. Of all the playmates, he was the sweetest and nicest one!”

I also kept remembering when Adji called me to say that you had given birth to a little boy 25 years ago. Elke and I went to the hospital immediately to see you and the baby. And you complained that your baby was not as beautiful as Elke’s (Frank) because he had such big hands and feet.

But later, the baby with the big hands and feet turned into a beautiful little boy with huge eyes and curly brown hair.

He also had such a nice character. There was nothing mean in him. That is the reason, Tatjana keeps on saying that Cyrus was her best playmate when she was little.

Later on, he was always so worried about you, Minou, and did not want you to smoke too much. Do you remember?

I never thought something like this could happen to Cyrus. He was so extroverted and had such a good relationship with you.

He was good looking, intelligent, and a nice person – his future could have been so bright. I can't believe Cyrus won’t be there when I come to visit you again.

Dear Minou, there is so much to say and I hope that we will get the opportunity to meet soon. 
In the meantime, I hug and cry with you.

Please give my love to Adji, Laila and Arto. I really sympathize with your sorrow.
 
 

Dear Auntie Minou, I lost the best playmate of my childhood.  Iam very sad ... I hug you Tatjana