I'm thinking of Erich Kruger today, as I often do when enjoying the various beautiful touches he built into my home: the simple patio he created behind my office that gives me so much pleasure as I sit there by the brook; the bathtub he installed in a remodeled bathroom; the stepladder to the loft with handles he added so that I, an older woman, could climb the ladder safely.
As he worked on my house, Erich was in the midst of planning what would become ReNew. I admired the new logo he showed me, and listened with rapt attention to his ideas for ReNew. I marveled even more as I witnessed his ideas actually flow from the invisible realm of his spirit to manifest concretely in the world.
Suddenly, I saw a sign with the logo he had shown me months earlier, on a building stocked with actual doors, knobs, windows, cabinets, and other useful items that would have gone into a landfill but now sit poised for a second life in other homes.
When I read that ReNew's board of directors had dismissed Erich without warning, I was, like so many who know the huge effort and passion he poured into ReNew, shocked.
Caro! I'd shout in one of the early years of my guest's visits, running into the house from my adjoining office with a message for him from a drummer. I've learned not to do that. Not to shout and barge. Because often - five times a day -