So, as some of you may know, Rhys’ eye doctor was murdered recently. :( Yesterday, there was a walk held in memory of him. Heidi attended with a friend of ours’ Gina. Heidi and Gina were interviewed by our local paper, and I thought I’d share. :)

For the whole article, click below on the Read More link!

For the original source click here.

700 honor slain doctor
His sister joins former patients for Sabino event
By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Braving Saturday morning’s wet, chilly weather, some 700 people - about half of them children - walked through Sabino Canyon in memory of Dr. David Brian Stidham, a 37-year-old Tucson doctor who was murdered Oct. 5.

Among those who participated in the half-mile Dr. Brian Stidham Children’s Memorial Walk were Andrea Depwe, Stidham’s only sibling, as well as many of his local medical colleagues, and a large contingent of infants, toddlers and grade-school children who were patients at Stidham’s pediatric ophthalmology practice.

Depwe, who came to to take part in the event from her home in Austin, Texas, wiped away tears for much of the walk. Depwe missed a memorial service for her brother that was held in Tucson the week he was killed because she had a baby just two days after the murder.

“I’d like to thank you for being here and for the overwhelming display of sympathy and concern you’ve shown toward our family,” she told participants, who set out from the Sabino Canyon Visitors Center at 8:30 a.m. “This is certainly devastating to our family but it is amazing the impact Brian’s death has had on the community. I’d like you to know Brian truly loved this area. . . . Thanks to each of you for making my baby brother so happy.”

Stidham, a married father of two young children, was killed outside his medical office. He was stabbed 17 times and his skull was fractured, according to Pima County Sheriff’s Department reports.

Stidham’s former colleague, Dr. Bradley Schwartz, 39, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge Oct. 15 in what authorities described as a murder-for-hire plot motivated by Schwartz’s jealousy of Stidham. Ronald Bruce Bigger, 38, accused of being the hit man, also is charged with first-degree murder.

Schwartz, a pediatric ophthalmologist who is now in the Pima County jail, has a troubled history that includes drug use, shoplifting and erratic behavior. But there was little talk of Schwartz during Saturday’s walk, which was mostly subdued and quiet. When people spoke, it was to acknowledge Stidham, who moved to Tucson in 2001.

“He touched people’s lives in more ways than they ever realized when he was alive,” said Dr. Mary Cochran, a colleague and friend of Stidham’s who helped organize the walk.

Dr. Sam Sato, who took over Stidham’s practice, did the walk as did Stidham’s entire six-member office staff and their families. Stidham’s employees wore shirts that memorialized their former boss: “In Memory of Dr. Stidham, 1967-2004.”

“It’s to show our loyalty and dedication to him,” said 28-year-old Veronica Carrillo.

Patricia Mazón-Brownell, 31, did the walk without her 4-year-old son, Garrett, who was one of Stidham’s patients.

“How do you explain to a child what has happened? How do you explain that there are bad people in this world?” Mazón-Brownell said. “My son liked Dr. Stidham immediately and he still doesn’t understand.”

Heidi Trevethan, 28, and Gina Kelly, 41, reunited during Saturday’s walk. The two Tucson mothers had met earlier this year in the neonatal intensive care unit at Tucson Medical Center when Stidham was the eye doctor to their premature newborn children. On Saturday they pushed their babies in strollers.

“We both got to know him and found him very reassuring,” Kelly said.

“The community will suffer. His death is a huge loss,” Trevethan said.

Other participants included many children wearing glasses who drew pictures and wrote messages of tribute to Stidham on construction paper underneath a ramada.

Stidham and his wife, Daphne, owned a home near Sabino Canyon and he spent the final Sunday of his life there with them, which is why his medical colleagues chose Sabino as the place to memorialize him. The family had recently bought a piece of vacant land near the recreation area and had been planning to build a new home there, Dr. Steve Cohen said.

“Brian was an incredibly special person,” said Cohen, a close friend of Stidham’s who participated in Saturday’s walk with his family. “This guy had so much potential and he was absolutely brilliant. He had compassion and humility and he was a brilliant doctor.”

Daphne Stidham is now living in Dallas and though she had been living with relatives she recently purchased a home for herself and her children, Depwe said.

Stidham grew up in Texas and earned his medical degree at Harvard. Members of the Pima County Pediatric Society donated a permanent tile mosaic memorial for Stidham to the visitors area at Sabino Canyon.

The walk was sponsored by the Pima County Pediatric Society, with support from Tucson Medical Center, Eegee’s and the Pima County Medical Society.