In Loving Memory Of Darla Ellis Dong
June 8th, 1962 - May 31st, 2008

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LATEST UPDATE: September, 26rd, 2008 PHOTOS ADDED TO PAST AND PRESENT PAGES. [Milton]

NOTES BELOW BY EMO:

Here’s a review of a show I went to Tuesday night. I saw Lincoln Brewster who was the guitar player for Steve Perry on the tour we saw him at The Warfield way back in ‘94/’95.


Lincoln Brewster C D release party.

Tuesday, Sept. 23

Family Community Church, San Jose


Lincoln Brewster rocks the house (or church as the case may be)!

Last night began my first Journey week without my beloved wife… As my step-daughter Telysa has said to me several times in the last few months, this is our new life and for me it begins a bittersweet week starting with the Lincoln Brewster CD release party followed by Journey at Concord (thanks to my JPP comrade and wonderful friend Leslie), Journey at Shoreline (courtesy of my other JPP compadres and terrific friends Cheryl and Michelle) and the pre-party and post-concert BBQ by the main man Frank who needs no introduction here. Truth to tell, though it took a little over a month and a few concert tics sold on Ebay, starting with the Kihn-cert and thru Crue-Fest to Masters of Metal, I’ve been steadily getting back into the concert scene with friends and family. No doubt, there truly is healing power in music be it Night Ranger, Crue or Priest and now Lincoln Brewster.

I’m sure many of you are thinking right about now is that the name of a child acted character from some t.v. show? Close but to save you the time of wikipedia-ing the name Lincoln Brewster, I’m sure many of you will recall he was the hot young guitar player for one Mr. Steve Perry on his 2nd solo album “For Love of Strange Medicine” and the subsequent tour. What many of you (myself included) might not have known is since the SP album and tour in ’94-’95, Lincoln has made a name for himself as an accomplished Christian rock musician with a half dozen albums bearing his name under his belt. And man, that boy can still shred! Being fairly unaware and new to his music, in no way can I begin to post a set list or song by song review but I can say Lincoln and his band were tight and kicked major booty! The stage was unexpectedly impressive boasting three synchronized video screens and Lincoln was quite the hammy stage presence though a bit talky for my tastes. The acoustic set ran a bit long but he tore the roof off when he got back into his rockin’ and even funky groove and for us Journey-a-holics, he as his band did acknowledge the SP connection with a truncated version of "Lights" more sung by an ecstatic and enthusiastic audience.

Darrell and Jenny, who accompanied myself and a friend, to the gig were able to meet him afterwards for autographs and he was quite amused when we announced he was our warm up for us seeing Journey over the course of the next few days.

It was a show I know Darla would have gotten a kick out off and I hope some how be it through me or however, she was there and did get to rock out with me…

Emo

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LATEST UPDATE: August, 3rd, 2008 (Cut from "My first dream of Darla..." Journey Forum thread:)

I can hardly believe it's been two months since I lost my Darla. Every day it seems like I find myself asking when I'm going to awake from this surreal dream and find my wife still by my side.

My daughter Telysa is always mentioning she has dreams about her mom. Mammy (Darla's mom) tells me she does too but I still hadn't, until this morning.

Yesterday, I finally had a free day as recently, all of my weekend time seems to be tied up with extra work and spending as much time as possible with family and friends. A good thing no doubt but I know I have to continue the process of putting away Darla's things. After a few hours of going through my wife's belongings still in our bedroom, I had to take a break and went out to a beautiful day to do a little shopping and just get out. I finally dropped by Best Buy to get a USB Memory Card reader so I could download photos from our camera (I had since lost the cable). I got on the computer and was combing through recent photos taken in the last three months or so and came across some videos I had taken on the last weekend Darla and I were babysitting grandson Aiden.

I told myself I can watch these and clicked one of them open. I had videotaped Darla teaching the little man (as she always called grandson Aiden) the word "fan" by pointing to the ceiling fan. To this day, he remembers what grandma taught him and perfectly understands when you say "fan" to look up at the ceiling and look for a ceiling fan. Of course, at the end of the video, I found myself in tears.

Watching these few videos of my wife's last day together with me and grandson Aiden may have been why I finally had my first dream of her. I rarely remember any of my dreams for more than a few hours after I've had them but I remember in this dream Darla and I just going about the usual domestic duties in our house. Oddly enough though, even in my dream, I somehow was aware she was gone as I remember commenting she never got around to teaching me how to do this or that. My last comment to her was asking her if I was always going to be able to see and talk to her as I was now... in my dream... to which she answered that I "will always be able to see and talk to her forever"... And I woke with tears in my eyes and Darla forever in my heart.

Emo



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LATEST UPDATE: July, 17th, 2008 (Cut from "Greg Rolie at Gordon Beirch" Journey Forum thread:)


Hello fellow Jrny luvers. I know I haven’t been on-line much (especially here at the forum) but I had a truly incredible experience this weekend I wanted to share with everyone and I hope you all don't mind reading about…

This past Friday night, I was to meet a few of Darla’s closest friends from her work place to carry on the tradition Darla herself had started of dinner and a Bar Crawl as they called it. I was the first to arrive at Gordon Biersch in downtown San Jose and as I wandered from the main restaurant and out into the patio dinning area, who would I find at a table not far in front of me but Gregg Rolie and several of his band members (guitarist Kurt, keyboard player Wally and drummer Ron I believe).

I opted not act the part of fan boy and decided on the better part of discretion by leaving him to his dinner and went back into the front lobby to await Darla’s friends to appear. When two of Darla’s work girl friends showed up, as luck would have it, we ended up getting seated at the table right next to Gregg’s. As we made our way to the table, I made eye contact with Gregg and Darla’s spirit in me crushed the shy boy half of me and I instantly found myself saying “hi” and re-introducing myself to him (having met him briefly at JPP and various after-show meet and greets).

He astounded me by almost instantly recognizing me and was on his feet to talk to me. He shocked me a second time immediately by relaying he had heard of Darla’s passing and expressed his condolences while holding my hand. It was amazing to me because I had no idea he would know about this and the next minute would stay with me for a lifetime as Gregg recalled fond memories of seeing Darla front and center at every Bay Area show he and his band did over the last few years… Of talking with us a various meet and greets after the shows… Of bumping into us at the hotel lobby of one of those gigs. It was all I could do to not break down in front of him when we expressed he indeed remembered all of this because as he put it “Darla was an unforgettable person”.

The night started off very apprehensive for me going out with Darla’s work friends for the first time without her by my side but talking to Gregg and sharing his warm, sincere and loving recollections of my wife made some of my pain melt away for a time to know what an effect my beloved Darla had on the people she touched.

Thanks for reading.

Emo

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JUNE 13TH, 2008 : PHOTOS ADDED TO PAST AND PRESENT PAGES.
You will find added photos at the bottom of each page. [Milton]

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Message From Emerson:

Thanks yous to every especially those who came from out of town…

It means more than you can know.

Props to my buddy Rev. Al for residing. You also MCed our wedding and married Darla and I. During that ceremony, you started off by reading our story I wrote and of course that started off about music and one band in particular JRNY.

When you take a look at match sites and dating services, I’ll bet most don’t match people up based on what’s their favorite band. The criteria for hooking up and man and woman are usually based on geography, age, ethnicity/race or religion. Even when you get to personal interests it’s usually general: favorite foods, sports, movie, t.v. shows, hobbies and pastimes and even when you get to music it’s did they both like rock music, country, hip hop, jazz, classic, classic rock. I don’t think matches are made from one band like JRNY.

Whatever higher force brought Darla and I together based on our love for JRNY was genius. An everlasting love affair was started. From that common ground, everything else fell into place: Together, we love all the same foods: sushi and Asian buffets. She could use a chopstick like Mr. Miagi. Snatching flies out of the air and stuff… We watched the same movies. The same t.v. shows… Except All My Children. That was hers and Telysa’s. I tried watching. Kendall having his baby and Zach sleeping around with this gal and that. I couldn’t figure it out. All I knew was our beautiful baby grandson Aiden was named after one of the starts of the show.

Then there was music. We listened to music 24/7. It was at home, in the car, at work… We saw 40, 50, 60 concerts a year. Again with one exception: Ricky Martin. He was girl’s territory. You ladies can watch him She Bang, She Boom his Bon Bon. That’s not for me.

We were inseparable in pretty much all things…

Some day… I’ll bet all my Jrny friends thought I was going to say “Some day love will find you”… The lyrics to a popular Jrny song. “Some day love will find you”… Actually, love did find me. And some day, I’ll find her again and we can be together forever. This is all for you Darla. Only you could bring so many loving people together. I love you and always will.


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Everyone,

Darla's daughter Telysa just got off the phone with the donor network with the information about how many lives Darla saved...

Lungs went to southern California male
Liver and her kidney went to very sick man in San Francisco
Kidney and pancreas went to a male in San Francisco

Thanks so much everyone for all the blessings, kind words and loving concern.

Emo

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Related Links:

http://www.myspace.com/emosjrny
http://www.journeymusic.com/forum


You can email me pictures to add to the gallery at remember_darla@sbcglobal.net