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Meet Kevin. Kevin takes more ribbing and abuse from we HPS'ers and he does it with complete tolerance and grace. We LOVE to tease Kevin, partly because he can be so serious sometimes, and partly because we get such a kick out of "the look." You can see "the look" in these photos. You can sort of picture the photo caption being, "OMG, I can't believe I"m dealing with these crazy albino people!" HA! Kevin would never in a million years actually say that!

The first picture is from Sheena's recent visit. As I said, Kevin can be very serious (as he should be) and apparently he was telling her some things, and she whipped out her camera and got him!

The second photo has a bit of a story behind it. A few years ago at the HPS conference Kevin was hanging out in the hotel bar with a bunch of us. Kevin's willingness to share a beer with the HPS'ers and come and hang out in the bar goes miles towards people trusting him. I'm sure no one at NIH appreciates the value of such actions, but I can tell you that medical folks willing to be human in front of patients goes a long way - especially in a group with a culture of mistrust of medical professionals. Anyway, the Heniken Beer Girls were at the bar that night.

Kevin had a few, and the girls gave him several Hawaiian flower necklaces. Everyone started joking with Kevin that he'd gotten "fill in the blank - this is a family blog!" I got a picture of Kevin decked out in all his glory with a beer.

The next year when Karen and I went to NIH, she brought him a present, pictured here. Another necklace for Kevin! We took the picture I had, and put it on our bedside computers trying to get a rise out of Kevin when he came in to see us. I don't think he was amused. He acted like he didn't even see it. So, of course, getting no satisfaction of out that, we had to dream up other practical jokes to torture Mr. Kevin.
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Anonymous said…
Hi Heather,

Well you probably don't remember me but we went to school together back in Osterholz. I have found your blog and am very interested in reading about it an finding out more about your disease. I hope you are doing ok and I still remember you as the girl with the most wonderful skill as an artist. Take care and write if you like.

Jennifer Carmack (Mills in High School) sweetlips73@excite.com
2:52 PM
Heather Kirkwood said…
Oh yes! I remember you! It's so good to hear from someone else from Osterholz! Man, talk about a blast from the past!
9:15 PM
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