Lively music created a festive atmosphere for the crowd of revelers who had partying on their minds at the dedication ceremony for the Lyndon Bandstand at Oak Meadow Park last Saturday. But one family was not there for the party—they were on a mission.
While others were dancing, eating, drinking and celebrating the occasion, this family was searching the sea of bricks surrounding the base of the new bandstand ... searching for the brick they had purchased and dedicated to the memory of a missing loved one.
When they found it, they wept openly. And in the powerfully emotional tradition of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., they knelt in front of the brick for a rubbing to transfer the words to a piece of paper that they could take with them as a loving memory.
Paul Dubois didn't recognize the family, and he didn't intrude on their very personal moment to find out who they were. But as tears welled in his eyes, he felt a fulfillment for the project that he and the Los Gatos Community Foundation had started and he, as the president had led to completion.
"Everything we did for all these years ... when I saw that family, with tears in their eyes, rubbing their brick ..." said Dubois, his voice trailing off.
It was an emotional day anyway for Dubois and his wife, Mary Tomasi Dubois. This was a project very near and dear to their hearts—a project they had worked so very hard on, along with the other members of the community foundation and with the support of the town. And to see the bandstand, complete with the Lyndon cupola on top, rise out of the grassy field of Oak Meadow Park, it was a dream come true. Then on top of everything else, there were the very personal moments that only added to the emotion of the day.
"Then there was one elderly gentleman with a cane who was having trouble finding his brick," he added. "So Mike Wasserman helped him find it, and the gentleman looked so pleased."
But it was that one special family that really drove the importance of the project home for Dubois.
"It was a family of three people, and they were all bent over rubbing their brick," he said. "After all the trials and tribulations—construction is never simple, especially closer to the end of a project—that made it all worthwhile for me."
There are hundreds of bricks surrounding the base of the bandstand, dedicated to families, missing loved ones, friends and even special pets.
"The bricks are important to people," said Dubois. "The brick program has been very popular, and we're going to create more opportunities to install even more bricks."
But the bricks are only part of the story. The bandstand itself is a wonderful addition to the community, and a tribute to the efforts of the community foundation.
"Late in the evening, Mary and I stood back from a distance to look at the bandstand all lit up with people dancing in front of it ... it is so beautiful." It most certainly is.
