With 23 trips around the sun now completed since our class Commencement, it never ceases to amaze me how our classmates continue to stay in touch, see their relationships evolve and deepen, and truly be there for each other well beyond the handful of years spent together in Hanover. We have collectively dealt with the highs and lows of careers as much as with the ebbs and flows of life in the many years since—and yet so many of us still seek each other out in both good times and bad. For example, Monica Oberkofler recently gave a shout-out to our resident class crime novelist. Monica, who was passing time at the Hong Kong International Airport in late May, wrote, “Brad Parks [The Last Act] kept me thoroughly entertained through several remote cities in China and Vietnam. Can’t wait for your next book!”

Later that same week Diane Fernandes, Karen (Smith) Kahrl,and Kathy (Luz) Cote gathered together and were celebrating “Karen’s first selfie” on Facebook as they held what they were calling “Dartmouth Reunion, Part 1.” But those adventures would be just the beginning, as the trio was looking ahead to “Dartmouth Reunion, Part 2,” when Katie (Burt) Driver would join them for a quartet of what I imagine will be nothing less than total revelry.

We also had many classmates offering congratulations on the newest additions to the extended ’96 family. Cristina Farrell and her husband, Jim Anderson, welcomed their daughter, Samantha Lily Marie, in early May (joining her big brother) and as of her 1-month birthday in June she was “holding her head up like a champ, spitting up, and pooping like crazy!” In equally exciting news, Joseph Marcheso and his husband, Jimmy, announced in late May the birth of their son, Maximilian Satyagraha Marcheso; the couple proclaimed “his entrance into the world was cosmic—as he was finally able to stretch his arms out and cry in the world; we did too. We were in love.”

And then there are those classmates who come together in ways none of us likely ever could have foreseen as undergrads. In mid-May Nakiah (Cherry) Chinchilla wrote of an occurrence in her life where that Dartmouth connection played a powerful role. First, one must know that Nakiah’s husband, Michael, sadly passed away in March after battling Huntington’s disease for many years. This same condition is also shared with their son, August—who makes use of a wheelchair due to his battle with the disease. For anyone unfamiliar with Huntington’s, it is a progressive brain disorder that causes neurons to waste away over time; affects movement, behavior, and cognition; and is almost always fatal.

Though he only just reached the age of 12, August is already a fighter. He was determined to attend his middle school dance in May; his challenge lay in the fact that he could only do so with an adult chaperone to assist in maneuvering his chair, and parents were not allowed to attend the dance. So what were Nakiah and Auggie to do? Enter one Scott “Wendal” Reeder. According to Nakiah: “My bestie of 25 years and most favorite guy [Wendal] took my freshly 12-year-old and favorite kid to his middle school dance. Uncle Wendal stepped up as usual, and my heart is so full of love and gratitude seeing them together. Life is short, be grateful for your friends that become your family.”

Now when friends, family, colleagues, and even strangers inquire why Dartmouth is so special to me, my new, more simplified answer will be, “Wendal and Auggie.”

—Garrett Gil de Rubio, 1062 Middlebrooke Drive, Canton, GA 30115; ggdr@alum.dartmouth.org