[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H137-H138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IN MEMORY OF ANNE NOEL FAZIO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Farr] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise on a more somber note 
than the debate that has been going on here today. I rise under special 
orders on this day, January 4, which would have been the birthday of my 
younger sister Nancy, had it not been for the tragic death of Nancy 
when she was killed visiting me when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. But 
I rise not so much to remember her. I did that when I was sworn into 
office in this Chamber just a few years ago. But I rise to talk about 
death, because it has come to one of our colleague's family.

                              {time}  1600

  Today I ask this country to share my empathy with our truly 
distinguished colleague, Vic Fazio. He lost his youngest daughter, Anne 
Noel.
  Everyone knows how hard Vic works in this institution. He is one of 
the hardest working Members that we have and certainly one of the most 
devoted Members to the institution of the House of Representatives. Vic 
is totally dedicated. But most important, or more important than his 
leadership, is his family.
  Today, in Sacramento, as we sit here in Washington, a memorial 
service is being conducted for his and Joey's daughter. She was a star. 
She fought off leukemia with a successful bone marrow transplant. She 
graduated from McClatchey High School. She earned a degree from the 
University of 

[[Page H138]]
California at Davis, where she was president of her sorority.
  To Anne Noel's parents, Vic and Joey, there is nothing more painful 
than that of the pain of losing a child. But I know from my own 
sister's death that you need time to grieve, and in your grief this 
country shares what you have so effectively done in leading this Nation 
ahead, and that is that this country shares your sorrow.
  We send this sorrow to you as Representatives of this Nation's 
Government, who knows that Vic not only has led this Congress but he 
has been a great father who is now suffering from the most difficult 
pain of all, the pain of the loss of a child.
  Vic, we pray for you. But most of all, we send our love.
  I yield to my colleague, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Eshoo].
  Ms. ESHOO. I would like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Farr], for organizing this small but very important 
tribute to Anne Fazio.
  As my colleague has just stated, Anne was a star. All of her doctors, 
anyone that knew her, her friends, her extended family of friends knew 
what a fighter she was. She fought leukemia, and she was a real 
champion. There were many times where she felt, as Vic said, her 
father, that she had been dealt a bad deck of cards, and her father, 
being the fighter that he is, reminded her time and time again to look 
at what she had done with what was dealt to her.
  She excelled at everything that she did, and we know most of all, as 
parents, the most difficult thing, the most unbearable thing, the most 
unthinkable is for a parent to have to bury their own child.
  So today in this Chamber, we gather as the friends and colleagues of 
the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio]. It makes no difference 
whether one is a Republican or a Democrat. We reach out, and we say, as 
parents and as friends, we grieve with you. You have our prayers. We 
know that the angels have welcomed Anne to heaven, but it is up to us 
to do God's work and to continue on and to take care of one another as 
friends and extend ourselves in sympathy.
  I would like to just close on this note: I cannot help but think of 
the writings of Milton at this time, and he wrote that, ``And so she 
passed on, and all the trumpets sounded on the other side.''
  God rest her gentle young soul, and we send you our best, Vic, and 
when you get back here we will surround you with our friendship, with 
our love and our prayers.
  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California 
[Ms. Pelosi].
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague, the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Farr], for taking this time for us to express the 
condolences and the sympathy of all Members of this body to the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio] and his family for his tremendous 
loss.
  I also wanted to say that our colleague, the gentlewoman from 
California [Ms. Eshoo], expressed so well the sentiments that we all 
share. She was the head of the prayer patrol for Anne in the Congress, 
and we were all alerted a couple of months ago that more prayers were 
needed, and we did not realize, though, how drastically.
  I would like to say, as I say my colleagues have said it so 
eloquently, but I just want to say a couple of things about Anne. She 
was only 2 years old when Vic was elected to the Congress, and she 
worked as a volunteer in her father's office and became very acquainted 
with politics. She had an interest in public service and she was a page 
in the summer of 1988.
  Vic and Anne's mother described her best when Vic said, ``Anne had an 
indomitable spirit and a tremendous amount of will,'' a tearful Vic 
Fazio said on Monday. Her mother said she was a wonderful daughter and 
a wonderful friend.
  We all shared Vic's concern over the years when Anne was fighting 
leukemia, and she proved herself a trouper, a fighter, and as my two 
colleagues have said, a star.
  Any words of consolation to someone who has lost a child are, of 
course, inadequate and, in fact, impossible. But I hope it is a 
consolation to Vic and to Joey, Carolyn Mason, Anne's mother, I hope it 
is a consolation to them we all learned a great deal from Anne in her 
courage and her strength. She was an inspiration to many people in the 
Congress of the United States and all who knew her, and I hope they are 
consoled by the fact that her life was appreciated, that she left this 
Earth as a teacher, as an inspiration, and that she is remembered in 
the prayers of all Members of the Congress of the United States.
  Again, I thank our colleague, the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Farr], and the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Eshoo] for their words 
of inspiration and again extend our deepest, deepest sympathy to Vic 
Fazio and his family.

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