We were at a meeting on Xenophobia in Phoenix, Arizona, around 2012. At breakfast I was lucky enough to sit at the same table as Frans and we began talking about books. He has written so many excellent ones and I have read nearly all of them, even though my work is at the other end of the scale of life, on microbes. I began telling him about the book I wanted to write but probably never would. It would be called Slow Birding and would encourage people to watch the birds close to home and see what they do rather than run all around the world to tick species off a list without watching. But I would probably never do this. Frans encouraged me, told me it was a good idea and I should write this book. Then he said he would share his agent's name with me and let her know I might be worth taking on. It was the marvelous Michelle Tessler and here I am, a decade later, and I did write that book. Frans generously contributed a blurb for the back cover. I don't know if it would ever have happened without his kind and generous support. I feel so sad that he is gone but glad I can hear his kind, nuanced, smart voice in all his writings.