Some "family memories" from the 18th Anniversary:
-----Kevin Anderson Jr. told me that knowing about his father's serious heart issues probably helped him to better deal with his father's death. (Doctors had given him less than a year to live.) Kevin Jr., who was 11 in 2003, did go through several rough patches later, as a teenager, but therapy and AA helped. His first car, after getting his license, was his father's prize red '90 Chevy Corsica. His father had driven it to The Station that night. Kevin Jr. drove it until the day its engine blew.
-----Sarah Ballard began sky-diving after losing her mother (Sarah Telgarsky) in the fire. Now she's jumped a half-dozen times.
Her father, survivor Craig Ballard, has had more and more problems with his damaged hands in recent years.
Sarah doesn't know if her parents met Jude Henault (D) and Sam Miceli (D) at The Station or at TGIF in Warwick just before the the show. And by "met" she's also not sure if they met--as in it was pre-arranged--or met--as in they simply ran into them and hung out. The couples did know each other and lived nearby in Eastern Connecticut.
-----Linda Suffoletto's mother said it was very comforting for her to talk with first-responder John Gregson (from the series of Station videos). Linda was officially identified by her jewelry and her boots.
Also, she told me that Linda did NOT smoke cigarettes, and abhorred tobacco use in general. So....that definitely shoots down the hunch I've stubbornly held for so long, that Linda was the "smoking" blonde next to the soundboard in the pre-show video. Humble pie for me, for sure.
But, Linda's mom did say that the Linda at the time of the fire bore little resemblance to the mostly dated photos of her that soon appeared in the newspaper.