On September 4th, 2011, Tracy went hiking with friends on Mount Rose. Full of health and laughter, they started up the trail in hopes of, if not reaching the summit, having a great day. They stopped at the first major overlook of Tahoe, a beautiful place full of the wonder of the world, for a short break and a drink. Tracy admired the view, coughed twice, and then fell down with his eyes still open. We hope that this means that he died quickly, but it most certainly means that he died in the grace of nature that he loved deeply.

Tracy is gone now, and there is nothing but a large hole inside us where the blackness flows out. We cry daily, and we miss him terribly. He was, most definitely, our Rock.

We understand that other people miss him as well. Grieving is a strange and horrible thing, and we all need to do it in our own way I guess. We want to accomodate everyone in this regard, but also need to do what is in our hearts and also what Tracy believed in.

Our family does not believe in funerals, and thus there will not be one. What remains of him is inside us, and he believed more strongly in celebrating life rather than mourning death. If we have a memorial, it most likely will be one for family only. We have our own internal processes that we hope will get us through this until the pain subsides, and then will be able to reach out more.

This does not present as many options for you to express your grief, and for that we apologize. In lieu of that, however, we offer the following alternatives:

• Celebrate your own life by living and loving hard. Remember Tracy when you do, because that’s the kind of life he tried to lead.
• Do something good for someone else, and don’t worry about the credit.
• If you feel like donating, please consider the Crisis Call Center and Doctors Without Borders

But above all, although we cannot talk to you at this time, we would love to hear how you felt about Tracy or how he affected your life. We know how he affected us, and our family has a million stories that we love. But we’ve heard those before. What we would like to hear is your stories – some of which we may not even be aware of.