Marvel owns the names and the contents depicted in the first half of the eulogy.

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I met Ida Fassbender a little under 13 years ago, at that time, her husband and son had been dead from a car accident for twenty years. I, along with Leech and Arthur Maddox, had been flying an experimental, model, saucer-shaped aircraft. She saw it, took a picture and reported that she had seen a UFO, complete with aliens.

She had made reports of a similar nature in the past, so the police weren't too keen on investigating, so she called the press. We saw reports of the aliens, never associating the report with our late-night flight, and decided that it would be better for us to find those creatures first. Off we went, searching for aliens, with the over enthusiasm of youth. We eventually wound up outside of Ida's home, where Leech began to look in a lower level window to see if she was home.

I don't know who was more surprised when the two of them were looking directly at each other with only a few inches, and a pane of glass, between their noses. I do know that I heard two screams, then Leech fell over on me, and I fell over Artie. That's the position the police found us in. The officers assumed that my friends were the aliens, Ida was waving her picture around as well. Eventually, things were straightened out, we were invited in, the police were dismissed, and our school was called to inform them of our location.

Ida reminded my friends, very strongly, of the only person that they ever thought of as their mother. In fact, she was a spitting image of her when judging by the drawings of the two of them. From that day on, we became part of each other's lives. She as 'Grammie' to Artie an Leech, and though I never used the term, to myself as well. To her, we were her not-quite-adopted grandchildren.

On the weekends we would often find ourselves helping her out, to the best of our abilities, around her house. During the week, odds were, that you could find her volunteering her time at our school, St. Simons Academy, where many others, many of you, in fact, also fell in love with her.

I don't know who was the first to know of her illness, besides herself and her doctor, that is. Lynne notified me of the fact and I relayed the information to Artie, then came to visit her. That was the saddest day of my life, still is, even considering the loss of my parents and her recent passing. In fact, that day, I was as close to being devastated as is possible.

The hospital councilors tried to soothe me, but I had heard it all before. That death is just a phase that every being must go through and that she was going to a better place. I've known , and been close to, many people who are no longer with us, and I thought I got to a point where I could accept the fact that people I cared for are no longer in the land of the living. I was wrong.

She finally set me straight about a month ago. She said that death was NOT a phase of life, but that LIFE itself was a phase that a soul would go through at least once, possibly in an effort to let the soul experience emotions. She said that before she met us, she was convinced that she was sent here to learn about sorrow, heartache and loneliness. The very last thing that she said to me was that she knew that she was here to experience happiness and pride. Thanks to three kids she met one Halloween.

In closing, for myself, Takeshi Matsuya, and my friends Arthur and Lawrence Maddox, from the bottom of our hearts, we love you Grammie.