Cheryl Miller 1946 - 2003

    
 
  Cheryl, in the summer of 1983
(in Oklahoma)
two months after we met.

  This was eight years before we knew about marijuana's benefits for people with multiple sclerosis.

  What would life have been like for Cheryl if we had known then?



  October 3, 1997: Cheryl and I were starting our part of a "Cures not Wars" medical marijuana walk from Boston to Washington DC. We were starting the New Jersey leg of what was a kind of relay walk.

  This was taken after a press conference at New York City's City Hall (background).

  Our 14 year old dog Floyd went everywhere with us, even on a cross state walk.

Event organizer Dana Beal is pictured on the left.

  









 

Two pictures of the medical marijuana "Commando Squad" in DC in 2000;

(Left picture) Gary Storck, Jackie Rickert, Jim Miller, and Cheryl Miller.
Taken shortly before being rousted by eight Capitol Police. It seems that our group picture taken minutes before, outside of Congressman Bob Barr's Longworth office didn't sit well with someone in his office. I had been banned from Capitol grounds for 6 months one year earlier because of a Commando Squad takeover of his office. Someone had hope that the ban was still on.
Wrong again Bob.

(Right picture) The Commando Squad posing outside of Congressman Barr's office, no doubt with the office phone in direct contact with Capitol Police. "They are outside our office right now!
Send help!"
     



 


Cheryl in front of the Capitol in 2000.
     
(1997) Cheryl, Floyd and me in front of the White House in November. This was shortly after President Clinton rode in a motorcade back to the White House up 16th Street. We stood outside the Corcoran Art Gallery a block south of the Executive Mansion where the motorcade pass us with nobody else on the sidewalk. As they passed, the second Limo slowed to a crawl and came directly up our side of the road. I was holding the "I don't inhale it either, I eat it!" sign over Cheryl's head. Behind slightly smoked gray windows was a hilariously laughing Bill Clinton with tears in his eyes. He knew that he'd been zinged. Rim shot please!


That's me carrying Cheryl to our car for a ride to NJ Senator Andy Ciesla's office. It was Cheryl's last trip to that office to try to see her Senator, to no avail. He avoided her until the day she died less than one year later.


   


Cheryl had been admitted to the hospital for breathing problems on June 2, 2003. Two days later I had asked a nurse to take a picture of us and she said she would come right back and do so. Right after that I got the news that Cheryl would not be getting better and I was waiting for her to wake up so I could tell her that she was about to die. I didn't hear anybody walk into the room...and a flash bulb went off.