Follow Up and Good Cause Alert

For those who read my post in January about the murder by strangulation of my law school classmate Theresa Gorski, you should know that there is a fundraiser for her children tomorrow evening:

Thursday March 21st, 7:30 - 9:30, W@tercoolerHub, 21 North Broadway, Tarrytown. Join us for an evening of fun, fashion and fundraising to support the children of a local family who lost their mother to domestic violence.

Admission is free, enjoy a glass of wine from Grape Expectations and the company of good friends. Silent auction and raffle: win gift certificates and amazing swag from local stores, services and restaurants, including the Tarrytown House, Flying Fingers, ShayLula, Au Naturel, Elite Hair Design, Salon 2000, the Tapp, Sweetgrass, Santa Fe and many more. For full list of donors, please visit:

http://on.fb.me/153kSGa

Buy gently used and vintage garments and accessories from Tahari, Coach, BCBG, Max Studio, Eileen Fisher, Calvin Klein, and more. Designer looks for thrift store prices.

So very sorry for the late notice, but I just found out about the event this afternoon, thanks to a comment on my earlier post by Dorothy Handelman (whose blog is worth a visit).

If the notice is too short, or the distance too far, please consider making a donation:

The children of Theresa Gorski have suffered a deep and lasting sadness from the tragedy that tore apart their home on January 5, 2013, resulting in the death of their mother. Friends, colleagues, and neighbors have been deeply affected by Theresa's death and want to help in some way. With guidance from Pace University's Women's Justice Center, they have established a fund in Theresa's memory to help provide financial support for her two young daughters. All donations will be contributed to the Howson Children's Fund and used for the girls' living expenses. Any amount of support will be most helpful at this difficult time.

You can also send a donation and/or condolences directly to the following address:

Howson Children’s Fund

c/o Jo Anne Gorski

P. O. Box 4552

Danbury, CT. 06813-4552

Please note that the online site does take a processing fee from each donation. Thank you for your support.

You can read more about how Theresa's sister Jo Anne has stepped up to raise her sister's children in this article. I can't re-hash it for you; seeing Theresa with her children, sister and mother in the pictures accompanying the article is a wrench--so much the same and so different from how I remember her! The hints of further horrors leading up to her death chilled me, as did the revelation that the older girl (8 years old) seemed aware of something wrong in her household causing her to "go silent."

The article reports:

[Jo Anne] Gorski described her sister, five years her senior, as “incredibly brilliant” – she graduated number one in her class from Georgetown with a 4.0 GPA. She was a nature and animal lover, a reader, and a great benefit to the children coming through the Legal Aid Society where she combined her two post-graduates degrees in law and social work from Columbia.

The Bronx Legal Aid Society agrees and will be honoring Theresa on March 8 with a special ceremony involving poetry readings, music, and a very special tribute: the Family Court Childcare Center which attends to children whose parents are in court will be renamed the Theresa Gorski Children’s Center in her honor.

Even more special: Theresa's daughter plans to play the violin that day. The 8-year-old has been playing violin since the age of 3 by the Suzuki method, which often required a parent in attendance at sessions, an active role Theresa played for years, Gorski said.

May these little girls, their aunt and grandmother begin to heal. And may this fundraiser help Jo Anne Gorski in the heroic undertaking she has shouldered. And may these lives which have been wrenched so cruelly awry be made whole.