HENRY YU (1958-2005)

HENRY was my favorite brother-in-law. I had just met Fabrizia Renzini down at our favorite tavola calda, Il Pizzone,and exchanged email and phone numbers. I came home at about 4pm to find a Skype message... something very bad had happened to Henry. At 47 (My age), Henry had a massive stroke. I looked at Helen and asked her to call British Air to see if they could get us on flight back to California. I called Fabrizia to tell her we were leaving and did not know when we would be back.

The flight was at 8 am the next morning from Fuimicino near Rome. We drafted Rafael Guiterrez (now in Minnessota) to pull an all nighter and drive us to the airport.After arriving at SFO, we were met by Joanne, Brandon and Nikki and made it straight to see Henry.

It was a sad sight. Henry was in a deep coma with very little hope of surviving. A loving wife and three great kids were there in disbelief.Henry was just one of those guys who was there for you.

Before we moved to Italy, Henry offered to do stuff for us like take care of my father's tech support needs. I knew Henry had helped my dad a lot. The day Henry had his stroke, my dad had left messages on Henry's machine... messages Henry could not respond to.Henry was under a lot of self inflicted stress. In addition to being an exceptional 24/7 dad, he was organizing an exhibition at Piedmont High School to encourage Asians into the field of entertainment with actor James Hong and his daughter April Hong.

I admire Henry for putting his family first. I will miss him.