heather buckley

One of 2 year old Austin's favorite pastimes was building his brio train track. From bridges to tunnels to turntables, split lines to stations.... The trick was to use every single piece and still make the track fully functional, no trailing a long bit of track into the kitchen... I loved it too. Laurie excelled at it (no surprises there) Engineering at its best. Another favorite pastime was heading downtown to the Art Institute where Austin would insist on heading straight for the surrealists. He loved it there and would spend ages taking in all of the paintings. But especially transfixed by Magritte's 'Time Transfixed', which shows a steam train coming out of a fire place. I wonder did 20 year old Austin hold any memory of having so loved those paintings as a small boy? I had so looked forward to meeting Austin 'the man' in Chicago, a city which he, Aidan and I would scramble around 18 years ago. I take comfort from the fact that some of his friends are doing the things they had planned to do with Austin, together. In October I will take my children to the park that we played in, to the art institute and to the lake, where my 3 year old, Gulliver, thinks he can swim out to save my friend. I wish he was right, I love you Austin.