Harlow Rothert

I´ll never forget the years of hard work, fun, and adventure in the years we lived at Portola Green. Paul Valentine

Prayers and blessings to you, his family. Harlow was one of a kind.

One of my favorite memories of my time with Harlow is from the dining room at Eskaton, where we typically had the most adventures. They were short staffed, and we had arrived quite early in order to get our favorite window seat. We had been waiting for close to 45 minutes, and small talk had run out. Harlow grew quiet, which was unusual so I was watching him, and noticed that he seemed to be studying the far wall. His eyes were following something and after squinting at the wall myself for an awhile, I realized he was watching a circular light reflection that was bouncing around. Looking down, I saw that it was him-he was manipulating his watch face to create a light circle and was entertaining himself by moving it around the room.

I was wearing a round glass locket of a similar size, so without a word, I started shifting it to make my own light circle, making it chase his. We exchanged looks and smiles, and without a word teamed our circles up and had them bounce off the unsuspecting dining room dwellers positioned against that wall. I started to hum "Dancing Queen" low so only we could hear it, and bounced our light balls off everyone´s heads to the rhythm of that song until we were finally served.

On the way back to his room, I played that song on my phone and we sang and "danced" the whole way back. Harlow knew every word.

When I was in middle school for dyslexia Opa came and visited for the day, following me around and watching my classes, he and I shared a moment that I wouldn´t forget. At the end of the day he broke down, and said that he experienced Dyslexic struggles all his life, and seeing me get the support I need made him so happy and grateful. I won´t ever forget that, we had more in common than I ever knew.