I was introduced as her manager. As a matter of fact, I was a little more to her than that. You will see soon that, I am her friend.

I am here to pay a tribute to Yoko, her memory as well as share some of my sweetest memories with her, that I will share with you today.

I looked up in the dictionary. When I first met Yoko, I said, this is a wonderful person. The first time I met her, I said I had to look up the meaning of her name in the dictionary. I looked up her name and immediately it registered with me as to why I had made a mistake, because it should have been very obvious to me what the meaning of her name was. The meaning of her name, according to the dictionary, was "a positive child," and that is really all what Yoko was about — and ever positive, an ever smiling, a child-like person.

She had the innocence of a child, she had the purity of a child, and she had the love, an unconditional love that she gave to all around her all the time. She was so positive, she had a smile on her face all the time as when she walked around the hallways, as she sat in her office, as she gathered around her friends in the lunch room.

Oftentimes I walked by and I was wondering, why is she smiling all the time? As you have all heard, sometime you just smile and that makes people wonder why you are smiling. One time I could not resist, but ask, I said, "Yoko, why is it that a lot of us are running around under stress and all those things, and yet you manage to smile all the time?"

And she said to me, "It is very simple, life is a gift of God, and we have to enjoy everything that comes our way. And on top of that, what is not about life, that one should not smile about?" Simple, yet so deep, so deep in her thinking, her approach, her way of how she conducted her life.

At XIP she was more than an employee. She in fact was the founder of our company called XIP. She was employee number one, because she was really the first one who joined XIP. She was a trailblazer.

Despite her innocent simple looks, she was the one who took risk with XIP 14 years ago, when our managing director from Japan was sent to the US to start this company. She was the first one to join XIP.

She absolutely enjoyed every minute that she spent in XIP. She contributed heavily, and until her last day, actually she cared so much about her fellow employees and XIP, that she did not tell anyone the pain that she suffered.

She was clearly the well-raised person from Japan, that she was. She was well traveled, she traveled around the world, as you all know. She read all about cultures, all ways of life and she was the most well-spoken person that I have ever come across.

While English was not her native language, I personally — and a lot of people at XIP know this — I enjoyed listening to her. When she talked it was almost like poetry in motion. She absolutely spoke every word with absolute consideration of what she was going to say, how it was going to impact people around her, and what impact people will be going to live with.

Her English, once again, was not just a language she spoke, because the language she spoke was something that came from the heart. She was not only a well-spoken person, but she actually observed what everybody else spoke around her. I remember her attending many of the company events, and she would come to me after the events, and she would give me feedback. She felt obligated, as the founder of our company, that is XIP, to give everyone around her that positive reinforcement. She absolutely was that positive child, that her name means, all the way and all around her life.

She traveled around the world, but in the last few days, as she was surrounded by her family, her friends, her little daughter, Giordano her husband, those were probably the most positive parts, the most wonderful days of her life, because that was what she was, a family person. She enjoyed her friends, she enjoyed her family, she adored her little daughter Deanne, and her husband Giordano. She talked about her sisters, Yoshiko-san, and she talked about her mother Yuriko-san, and it was amazing that she talked, when I saw her two weeks ago, she said, "You know, when my sisters arrived from Japan, I actually got better, and that is what is going to get me out of this bed and get me better."

She should be relieved in that feeling, that touched her family and friends for a while ago. That is that healing, that touch, that she provided to her family and friends all throughout all her life.

Ultimately, last week she sat out for her ultimate journey, her journey to the heavens. Like her, she wanted to thank everyone around her before she set out on her journey, and she did for all the journeys to Europe and Japan and everywhere else she went.

Some of you probably know, she did say that Thank You. She toasted her friends, her family, all of the society she lived in, and she said, "You know, I am so proud, so happy, to be leaving this world with family, friends, and the society that I have lived in. I have traveled around the world, I have read everything about the world, all cultures, and it is time to say good-bye." She toasted her family and friends with a sip of champagne, and she departed for that ultimate journey.

I really do believe, that we as selfish human beings will miss her physical existence, but her physical existence should not be and should still never be confused about her existence. She is here today, I can see her in your eyes, in your souls, in your spirits, in the love I see in your eyes. She is here today, she is looking at us, and she is enjoying every minute of what she is seeing, the love that she left all of us with, and the love that will always remain on this Earth.

Ladies and gentlemen, I think today is the day, to remember Yoko, but at the same time to celebrate that wonderful person that Yoko was and Yoko is, and Yoko will always be with us, in our hearts, our minds, in our spirits, and most importantly — from this point on — in our prayers and in our memories.

I will cherish every minute of my association with her the last twelve years, and I hope you do too. Thank you very much for your time, I would like to invite you to talk about your sweet memories and her association with you at this time.

Sunil Gupta