Would have been 22 today. I miss her horribly. Enough said.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BF,

(

LSR

I have no clue how a smiley face appeared because I certainly didn't click on any of those "graemlins".

I was sending you a hug and that's what ended up as my response.

You already know how I feel, because we spent time together on what should have been a beautiful day for ALL of your family.

Computers are "life"lines, most times.. but considering what appeared as my response....I did have to make sure you understood I was attempting to send a hug.

Always,

L

Thanks Lyn for your thoughts as always. Barbara

I just found this review Tara had written about a Steinbeck novel the last year of her life on Amazon:



brilliant, 21. März 1998
Rezensentin/Rezensent: taramaritza@msn.com aus Philadelphia, Pa
As a dedicated fan of steinbeck, i would be hard pressed to say anything negative about any of his work. This book, however, needs no favoritism towards its author on my part. A multifacited tale with description transcending any other underlies a plot so strong and powerful that the novel sticks with you and overshadows all others. --Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine andere Ausgabe: Unbekannter Einband.

War diese Rezension für Sie hilfreich?

My mother was just saying yesterday what a special kid Tara was, even as a little girl. I feel nothing but despair over this terrible loss, as I face another horrific anniversary of her awful death. Even reminiscing about her wonderful but short life, is very painful. I'd give anything to hug her again.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BF,

Tara would have been 24 yrs. old today. I really have nothing I can say about it except that I am extremely sad and miss her very much. She was born on November 27th, 1981 and almost lived to be 17. What a horrible waste of a beautiful life.

Edited 5/2/07

Apparently this article on Tara after she died, was removed from this person's site, so here it is although I don't think the picture of her will show up.


Episcopal student `seized the day' Tara

Fetherolf was on her way to year of study in Switzerland


Tara M.Fetherolf who died in the flight 111 plane crash. (Photo/Episcopal Academy)
by Maureen TkacikDaily News Staff Writer


At Episcopal Academy in Lower Merion, the Latin classes start in sixth grade. That's the kind of school it is. Small, rigorous classes; attentive teachers; brainy, motivated students -- they're the norm, typical. Tara Fetherolf, on the other hand, was not typical. In choosing her sophomore courses last summer, she decided to create her Latin curriculum independently, cramming three years of lessons into one to get ahead. But to "carpe" the proverbial "diem" was the way Fetherolf lived life.By the end of her sophomore year, she'd mastered chemistry and physics, starred in "South Pacific," taken college-level calculus, published poetry, rowed crew, read Homer. Last month she decided to follow her academic pursuits overseas to Switzerland. She was 16. "She seized the day," said Betsy Hamilton, Tara's Fetherolf's adviser at Episcopal. "We're just devastated that her day was so short." Hamilton and other faculty members learned Thursday Fetherolf had been on Swissair Flight 111, which was carrying 229 passengers from New York en route to Geneva Wednesday night when it went down in the waters off the coast of Nova Scotia.Episcopal spokeswoman Emily Cronin said the Fetherolf family remained at home in Haverford and had not decided yesterday whether to travel to Nova Scotia or when to have a funeral. Fetherolf's parents were grieving in seclusion and did not wish to comment on their daughter's death, school administrators said. "They're very, very private people," said Jim Squire, the school chaplain. "They weren't very high-profile." Squire visited Fetherolf's parents and seventh-grade sister Thursday. "Sometimes it's just important for someone to sit and be there. There's not much that can be said," Squire said. "Words really become woefully inadequate." But Squire, like so many others at the close-knit school, had no shortage of glowing words to describe Fetherolf. "There's sort of a theme to Tara," he said. "I like to use the image of the runner." Though an avid skier, Fetherolf was never a stellar runner, he recalled affectionately. But it didn't bother her. She went out for cross-country anyway and "worked very hard to always achieve her personal best." Academically, her personal best soared towards genius, administrators said. On the debating team, she was a natural; when she started learning Latin, she devoured the classics; when she walked into Hamilton's office every week, she'd be flush with the thrill of a new calculus concept. "She approached things with a need to conquer them," said Episcopal Headmaster Jay Crawford, recalling how the high-schooler would bulldoze through piles of work in minutes, only to ask for more. "She would come in and her eyes would sparkle and she would get all excited," remembered Hamilton fondly. "It might sound very strange, but she was very hungry for knowledge." In eighth grade, Fetherolf knew she wanted to become a doctor. She also, Cronin said, had decided on a favorite band -- the Smashing Pumpkins -- and a favorite movie -- "Pulp Fiction." By sophomore year, she'd acquired a taste for Bach and orthopedics and had changed her ideal college choice so many times that teachers were caught in a giddy whirlwind of ambitions and plans for the young scholar. "Any profession that she decided to go into, she would've been successful," Hamilton said. "That's the real shame of it all . . . it's just enormous lost potential."


©1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BF,

Tara was on her way to this school. She hoped to attend Oxford after completing her education here. She was the only student not to make it for the first day of school.

http://www.aiglon.ch/hello1.shtm

I think Tara might have eventually pursued foreign affairs in some capacity, had she lived to be an adult.

Here is something I wrote on a blog about her:

Monday, March 19, 2007

My daughter Tara


Tara was 16 years old, when she was killed in a horrific plane crash, that should never have happened. She was an incredible human being and I feel honored to have been her mother for the short years she was on earth. I have some incredible memories from the last months that she was alive. Visiting Ireland, and how she acted so sophisticated for her age. We stayed at an Inn, where she actually got to see John Hume in the middle of making his peacekeeping efforts, in Northern Island. A very wonderful man that we were sitting with at the time, said that Hume was one of the finest Irishman that ever lived. Says Wikipedia about Mr. Hume who was co-recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize, with David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party, as well as a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize and the Martin Luther King Award, "He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the modern political history of Northern Ireland and one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace process there." Tara was watching history in the making, and I think had she lived, this would have had an impact on her life. She was dead 2 weeks later.

When she decided to go off to an English boarding school in Switzerland, I was very sad about that. I didn't want her to go... I loved being around her and was devastated that I would miss seeing her grow up. We made a secret deal that maybe my other daughter and myself, could come live in the village she would be staying in. I was seriously considering it, as I wasn't ready to let go of my daughter quite yet!


She never made it over to Switzerland for even the first day of school. It breaks my heart to just think about it. She was such a good person and so filled with excitement over learning French, furthering her education in biology, etc., that it is almost unspeakable to think about how her entire future was ripped away from her, by greedy people that were trying to make a few bucks on a gambling machine installed on jets that didn't have enough power to support them. I can't imagine how horrified she would be, if she saw her family today... but that's another story. I am so sad that she is gone...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BF,

One would think one's own tragedies would harden one against the tragedies of others. Not so.

I am so sorry your heart still aches so badly.

In the words of Edna St. Vincent Millay,

"Time does not bring relief; you all have lied, Who told me time would ease me of my pain!"

quote:

"Time does not bring relief; you all have lied, Who told me time would ease me of my pain!"

DH, isn't that the truth?!

My heart goes out to you also.

Barbara

Tara would have been 26 on 11/27. I still blame the management at swissair for her death. They chose to install that gambling piece of garbage on their jets. They've caused a tremendous amount of sorrow, and they were all about the money. A bank with wings. She was very special to me.

Hi BF

I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. I have visited these forums off and on for the past fews years (just as a lurker) and only just registered now.

I did not know anyone personally on that flight, but at the time was an employee of Swissair Cargo in Boston, so remember Sept 2, 1998, as though it was yesterday.

This past Sept 2nd, the 10th Anniversary, I was on a plane coming home from Disneyworld with my husband and two children, and sat there appreciating my family even moreso knowing the hell that you and your family, and all the others connected to the crash were going through at that moment.

I am not very good at the written word, but felt the need to tell you my heart and thoughts and prayers are with you and everyone else and that you may/or have find some sort of peace.

Sherry

Sherry, thanks so much for your thoughts. I'm glad you stopped by.

Barbara