From Marius Jakulis Jason

Dear Jim,

My condolences to you and your family. Vaiva was someone special for me, because she did so much to maintain and promote Lithuanian culture, traditions and education in the US and in Lithuania.

I am very glad that a number of years ago, Vaiva set forth our family tree showing how our families are related:

My father Zigmas Jakulis was the son of Juozas Jakulis, whose sister was Regina Jakulis, whose son was Mykolas Židonis, whose wife was Genovaitė Vosyliūtė, whose daughters were Lijolė [the artist] and Genovaitė, who married Juozas Vėbra, who had a daughter Vaiva Vėbraitė, who married Jim Gust, who had four children Aras, Liepa, Lokys and Sirvydas.

When I was little, our Jakulis family (my father Zigmas, mother Eugenia, brother Eugene and I Marius) lived in Cleveland and we would visit the Židonis and Vėbra families in New Haven, when they all lived together in this big old house on Orange Street near Yale University, which occurred in the summer time on our way to or from Cape Cod.

My earliest memory of Vaiva is when I was maybe 12 years old and Vaiva was 4 years old, we set up a trap in her back yard for catching birds, which was a large metal wash tub which we propped up with a stick to which we tied a string. We put some bird seed under the metal tub. There were a lot of pigeons by their house, and soon enough, a pigeon came under the tub to get the seeds, we pulled the string and caught the pigeon. We were so excited. We also let the pigeon go because Vaiva did not want to hurt it.

I would appreciate it if you would also post the attached photo, which I took of Vaiva and Jim at the 2007 07 07 wedding of your son Aras with Renata.

I will always remember Vaiva.

Very truly yours,

Marius Jakulis Jason
Lawyer, Chairman of AAA
Mobile: +370 655 154 68