"I want everyone to know how lucky they were to have interacted with Father Eric."

Fr. Eric's life impacted people from Eureka to Japan. Fr. Eric's loss devastated his family, friends, the Catholic community, the Christian community, the religious community, the HSU community, the Japanese community and many others.

I have received many emails, talked with several people. One of his former students sent me this today via email. She gave me
permission to share it.

I came across your blog from a google alert I created for Father Eric

I was lucky enough to have Father Eric as my religion teacher in high school (St. Francis High School 2002-2006). I was a freshman and very immature at the time. I would be that one student talking during class and Father Eric would always patiently ask me to pay attention.

I was lucky enough to have a patient teacher who cared so much about everyone. After freshman year, Father Eric worked in Campus Ministry and I was able to speak with him when I visited. During my junior year, I actually went in to specifically apologize for my immaturity in his class. I wanted to show him that I had changed and thank him for never yelling.

I cannot thank you enough for blogging about this trial. I search Google News looking for updates but became discouraged when a year later (Jan 2015), nothing was found. I wish there were more articles published about this case. I want everyone to know how lucky they were to have interacted with Father Eric. 

I want Father Eric to be able to look down at us knowing justice has been served!

It is truly a tragedy what has happened. Father Eric is someone who will always be in my heart and mind. 

Thank you again.

PS - Father Eric had a Tibetan singing bowl that he would always hit as class started. He wanted us to quiet our minds and focus on what we were about to learn. I hope he was able to share that activity at the beginning of mass.