email from Kristine Quance-Julian

Hello Josh & Erik,

Thank you for communicating with us/Jeff regarding Joe. We've really appreciated your heartfelt emails, updates & set-up of the website.

While I trained with Joe for just one short year, it wasn't hard to recognize early on that he was "one of the good guys." I remember enjoying the friendly competitive banter we exchanged each day in the pool.

I've struggled this past week; easily breaking down a couple times a day, especially when I hear songs like Tim McGraw's "Lay Me Down" to Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red White & Blue." I go from mourning for his wife & family (who I unfortunately don't even know) to regretting that I didn't keep in touch with him & others after I retired.

Our eight year-old son, Trenton, has caught me crying in the car a few times this last week. He'll look at me with his worried face & ask "mom, are you okay?" I've tried to use the opportunity to tell him about Joe... about the good things everyone's saying about him; that I really don't remember what his times were, the races he won or what he accomplished in the pool. More importantly I enjoyed training beside him each day, that he always worked his hardest & was a noble person is so many ways.

Who really care's about what we accomplish in this sport? That's not what I want to be remembered for. I can only hope that when I'm gone people will say that I was 10% of the person that Joe was.

Again, thank you so much for sharing your stories. I hope that his short life will inspire us to become better people; valuing & reaching out more to friends & family. For selfish reasons, I wish that I had kept him, as well as many others in the swimming world, in my life. We all need the rare Joe Curreri's to remind us of the importance & power of loyalty, sincerity & dedication.

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. Please let us (Jeff or me) know if we can ever be of help with anything.

With many thanks & a heavy heart,
Kristine Quance-Julian

P.S. Today Trenton, who loves swimming with his friends every day, asked me if he could tell them about Joe... he said he wanted to tell them that his parents & their friends were really sad about their teammate who was in the Army & tralned with his mom at USC. He showed real empathy for me, but at the same time seemed proud that I had so many good things to say about Joe. I can only hope to teach our son the importance of being a good person before being a so-called "important" or "accomplished" person.