marji

Hiya, Folks,

Lisa was buried today very near her home in Lake Peekskill, New
York. The part of New York where she was "laid to rest" is just to
the east of the beautiful Hudson River and is notable for its
verdant, rolling hills. The site where she was buried is, if my
navigational skills are intact, in a western-facing slope of one of
these hills. If standing on a rather steep slope under a steely
February sky with a biting, chilly wind weren't, um, challenging
enough, the slushy snow and ice underfoot definitely added an
intensity to the moment. Every now and again, someone would succumb
and suddenly slip, even though they were standing still.

Yet, somehow we were warm, all of us there together. (We reminded
me, just a little, of the penguins who huddle in Antarctica. Perhaps
I'm exaggerating just a tad!)

The rabbi who conducted the service (I didn't catch his name) was
eloquent and impassioned. As Liam said as we drove home later, "How
could he not be? He had excellent material to work with." So
true. You really got the sense, you *knew* that this man knew Who
Lisa was. He was thorough and kind.

When the opportunity for the mourners to speak came, I stepped up
with my 20-page-long list of messages, some lengthy, some brief, that
had been sent from very near and very far. Before I left the house
for the funeral, I timed the reading of the whole thing and found it
to be more than 30 minutes long! And that was with some editing. I
felt that I couldn't do that to this slipping-and-sliding, shivering
bunch. So, although I was prepared to read all the submissions, I
read only one rather brief piece and told folks that they could look
at the tribute blog I am creating to see the rest in all their
unabridged beauty. The URL for that site, by the way, is
<http://lheyman.blogspot.com>, and it is about halfway done. There
are still many tributes and photos for me to post.

But, I am positively fried right now, so I'm going to tackle the
completion of this another day. Perhaps tomorrow?

For a while, there, last year, Lisa and I and a couple of other local
unschoolers (Mary Ann and Robin) were trying to get an unschooling
information night going for folks who expressed an interest in
learning about unschooling. I believe it was Lisa's idea, and she
invited me to participate ~ how incredibly honored I felt! For some
reason tonight, I looked back through our email exchanges; we were
working on refining the notices for the event and the event
itself. Looking through these emails, I felt a sharp pain in my
heart that I will not be having these exchanges any longer with this
impossibly wonderful, bright, sweet person.

We also talked about her puzzling, frustrating illness in many of
these emails; the illness, by the way, precluded our ever getting
this thing off the ground. It was the consensus of the three of us,
Mary Ann, Robin, and me, that Lisa and Roxanne and Ruby were
indispensable; I felt they could have gotten along without *me* just
fine, but I couldn't imagine the thing without Lisa. ::sigh::

I'm really rambling when I ought to be sleeping. Thanks, folks, for
listening. Do check out the blog, and if you're moved to post
something on there and you haven't already sent me something, please
do send me something now. It'll never be too late.

Sending you all love,

Marji