Around Town: Love, support appreciated

Thank you to all the people and businesses who continue to support the golf tournament in memory of our son, Andrew.

Last Monday, despite the economy and the weather, 88 golfers gathered for the 5th Annual 2d Lt. Andrew Torres Memorial Golf Classic at the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club, to benefit cancer research. Earlier in the month, there was a fundraising cocktail reception at Provencho restaurant in Downtown Los Angeles.

Once again, the Valley Sun and the Apple Cart, our major sponsors, supported the event. Once again, my “boss,” Bill Littlefield, who was the head of the public defenders office, was a major supporter, as were Dee Fisher and Mark Martinez.

Many of our colleagues from the legal and business community continued to support these fundraisers — Laura Bushley, Lucia Moskal, the Pasadena Bar Association, the Applegates, the Santwiers, Heather Morrow, Salon Finsel and members of the Pasadena Rotary. There will be a complete list on the HMRI website at www.hmri.org and on www.andrewtorres.org.

Again, this year, it was a reunion of entire families from LCE/Palm Crest: the Bryants, the Goodsells, the Stevens, the La Marrs. There were Flintridge Prep alums, faculty and parents: the Chandlers, the Itos, the Railsbacks, the Linders, the Henrys, the Stauffs, the Mangs, the Frankel-Parks, Coach Tom Fry and the Rebel football coaches, and Vatche Hagopian, a wonderful Prep math teacher. Andrew’s classmates from the Naval Academy Class of 2002, those currently on shore duty, were there to ride around in the carts, golf and schmooze.

It’s exciting to remain connected to these young people as they begin to fall in love, to marry and to have babies. It is a blessing that they keep us in their lives.

Len and I think of Andrew often. If you let us, we will talk about both our children, just like any parent. Incessantly.

There is a lot of suffering in the world. Just turn on the TV set or read Twitter. Despite that, I never dreamed that we would be in this position — we are two happily married parents of two beautiful children. One child is living and one child is not. We did not sign up for this.

What keeps us going? Our friends are wonderful. We enjoy our work. Also, I come from a religious tradition that promotes tikkun olam — the duty to repair the world. Our goal is to help find a cure for cancer. To repair this glitch in existence so that no other family will suffer this kind of loss. We thank all of you for your love and support. One day, cancer will be a disease of the past.


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ANITA SUSAN BRENNER is a longtime La Cañada Flintridge resident and an attorney with Law Offices of Torres and Brenner in Pasadena. E-mail her at anitasusan.brenner@yahoo.com.

Published Thursday, June 25,2009