Locals Come Out to Say Thank You to Steve Jobs

As the makeshift memorial for grew at Apple's headquarters, it wasn't just the dozens of gently placed flowers or the iconic images of the man himself on mugs and balloons that illustrated admiration; it was the handwritten notes that told the real story.

On what was perhaps the smallest note left Thursday, simply written on a three-by-three-inch yellow sticky pad, it may have summed up what many in the world are feeling right now in the early days after Steve Jobs' passing: "Thank you for making all the products. They rule."

The family who left the note are locals -- Cupertino residents Sangeeta Kopardekar and her children Rucha, 10, and Abhay, 7.

As Kopardekar spoke with a Washington D.C. reporter who writes for a Korean newspaper, Abhay grew impatient.

"Can we go now? I have to go home and make a card," he said tugging on Sangeeta's arm.

The Faria Elementary School second-grader has plans to create his own condolence card that he says he will take to school on Friday so that his teacher and classmates can sign it. He'll then bring it back to the memorial to add it to the mementos.

Rucha's class also had plans to make a card for Jobs to say "thank you," she says, for the products he created which Rucha and Abhay use in their classrooms, and for the products they use at home such as the iPad and iPhone.

"She was upset when she heard the news," Sangeeta says about Rucha. So they came to pay their respects.

Jobs' influence and reach is worldwide, something that struck Sangeeta when her visiting 70-year-old father from India commented on the icon's passing.

"Every age group from anywhere in the world (is effected,)" she says.

Raised in Mountain View and Los Altos, Jobs attended Cupertino's Homestead High School, then placed Apple's headquarters in Cupertino—the world may connect with Jobs, but Jobs' roots are here, in Silicon Valley.

"We live in Cupertino and feel some ownership right; a personal connection. I feel like we know him through his products," Sangeeta says.

Related Topics: Apple, Memorial, and Steve Jobs What would you thank Steve Jobs for if you met him today?