Letter to the Wake Forest community

October 24, 2003

Dear Wake Forest Friends:

The outpouring of friendship and support has overwhelmed Laura and me to the extent that even now I am not quite current with reading your wonderful messages. I will, however, read each one because they are powerful in their effect on me. Your support is palpable.

Your prayers, stories, experiences in treatment, favorite sayings and blessings create for me a meditative frame of mind which I aim to sustain during my treatments.

I am almost two weeks into radiation, and everything is going as predicted. We have wonderful specialists here, and I am in excellent hands. I am in the office each day. I must also thank my colleagues here for their ready assumption of duties, especially travel, which I cannot presently undertake.

Never question the particular culture of caring that is an essential element of the Wake Forest heritage. My present experience is a vivid example of the active goodwill of our alumni and friends from the corners of the earth. Your love and prayers are sustaining, and Laura and I wish we could reply to each expression with the gratitude we feel, and which the generosity of your spirit deserves.

Sincerely yours,

Thomas K. Hearn, Jr.
President