Lina’s Gone
In the midst of the thunder & lightning of an unusually wild thunderstorm, at 5:55 PM last evening, Lina stopped breathing.
Seconds later, at 5:57 PM, a very close lightning strike caused our house to lose power – no lights, no telephone, no internet connection – until the power was restored at dawn this morning. Our cell phones have poor reception at our home so we were only able to make a couple of outgoing calls.
And so…
Our daughters and I lit our house with candlelight as it got dark, and after the storm cleared, the bright light of the huge, low full moon over the ocean out right our windows filled our house. My girls and I spent the evening sitting alone with Lina until the funeral home came to remove her body at 11 PM while I held a flashlight so they could maneuver down the stairs in the dark. Then, Chloe, Moriah and I sat at our kitchen table for most of the night, by candlelight, in shock I suppose, hugging each other and picking out some of our favorite photos which we will be posting here soon.
love,
Craig
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I had lost touch with Lina since she worked at Appalshop many years ago so was unaware of her long and brave fight, and very much saddened by her passing.
On Saturday I happened to be looking for some family information and opened a folder with notes, clippings, a memorial service program, from when my brother Joe died in 1992. There I found a note from Lina “offering with love” a meditation on grief that a friend had given her when Bert was killed and which she said “for whatever reasons, it really helped to lift the weight of the loss.”
She was a truly wonderful and loving person. I hope all of us who knew her at some point in her exceptional life can remember her brightness and let that lift the weight of her loss.
Love to all –Mimi
So very sorry. Evidently, Lina was a lightworker. Given Craig’s chronicles of her adventurous “travels” these past several weeks, she evidently still is.
I wish Lina peace & adventure wherever her spirit is, and much peace & love to her family.
Dear Chloe, Moriah, Craig and Lina’s family and friends, I am blessed to have known Lina in this life through our work together in the early days. She was amazing! My thoughts and prayers are with you and I shall keep close my memory of her in the years to come. Love and peace, Katharine
I just heard from Seth Borgos that Lina had died. I am shocked. Now I’ve read the “Tell the Bees” blog and got the whole sad, although inspiring, story. I met Lina when I became an organizer for ACORN in 1976. She was beautiful and charming and nice. Years later I visited her and Chloe on her farm near Penn State. Then, she stopped in Easton, PA for a short visit, perhaps on the way to New England. I wish that I could see her again; I wish that I had kept in better touch and contacted her while she was sick. As the blog and the comments show, she was extraordinary.
God has his ways, but I’ll never understand when he takes the good ones. I didn’t expect to cry today, you this just got me.