Celiac Meetup memorial dinner

September 17, 2009

Hi everyone,

Our Celiac Meetup memorial dinner for David was on Monday night [Sept. 14, 2009] at Lilli and Loo, one of David’s favorite NYC gluten-free restaurants. There was a small group of about 15 people who gathered to honor and remember David. We started the evening with one of our group members reading a mourner’s kaddish and then we continued to go around the table and let people share stories about David. Out of the 15, there were actually 2 people that had never met David but were great fans of his blog and his postings on our message board. One woman mentioned that she was convinced that the first few months after her diagnosis of Celiac Disease would have been miserable without David’s support and guidance; this was one of the women that has never even met David in person but only knew him from online. Also at the table were Dr Peter Green and Cynthia Beckman, both of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. For those of you that don’t know Dr. Peter Green, he is one of the preeminent Celiac Disease research doctors in the country, if not the world. I am sure David would be quite honored to know that Dr. Green came to share his thoughts and condolences with the group. We had other group members at the dinner as well as three NYC Celiac/Allergy bloggers, including myself, that were together to remember David. David’s good friend Ellen Brennan-Hearn, who some of you may have met at David’s service, was there and she was very touched by the number of people who came to the dinner. It was a bit emotional at times, but we had a nice time remembering David and sharing stories about our friendships with him. It was obvious that whether someone knew him for years, like Ellen and myself, or only knew he via email, everyone really admired David and will miss him deeply. For the dinner, I put together a memorial booklet of quotes from the Celiac community. You can find the file here:

http://files.meetup.com/30873/In%20Memory%20of%20David%20Marc%20Fischer.pdf

Thanks again for all of your support. It is obvious that David surrounded himself with wonderful people.

Erin Smith