News Round Up, RIP edition

I found this sweet remembrance of the woman credited with founding PFLAG.  This story embodies all the pieces of motherhood (parenthood, if you like) that I hope someday to emulate.  I didn't think anyone could do a better job at Ms. Manford's obituary, but this one brought a tear to my eye. 

On Christmas, we lost another powerful woman who stepped into the fray not for notoriety...but for the what she believed in.  I would have loved to hear her preach. 

Sometimes life calls you to do that which might never have imagined yourself doing.  Ms. Beate Gordon's obituary included these lines:

Had her father not been a concert pianist of considerable renown; had she not been so skilled at foreign languages; and had she not been desperate to find her parents, from whom she was separated during the war and whose fate she did not know for years, she never would have been thrust into her quiet, improbable role in world history.

And I love that she has an Oakland, CA connection -- as many great women do!  Resourceful, dedicated and talented, what a woman.  Why do I only learn of these ladies on their passing?!

I am not sure why I have never heard of this woman before -- but I loved this story about how she came to create a foundation specifically to keep/place social workers in San Francisco schools.  What a truly lovely woman with a wonderful sense for what children need and what adults can do to meet those needs!

I was tickled by this story of this powerful, thoughtful and innovative woman. It is not an obituary, but the book about her by a student seems like a tribute.

I thought this was going to become an RIP edition for only amazing women -- and it a way, this story is about amazing women -- 1 mother and three resilient young women -- who are figuring out how to keep going after losing their husband/father.  This is a well-written, moving story -- but it hits me particularly because I think daily of my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew who are having to find a way to do just this.   And it is important to keep remembering just how hard it is for all of us -- and that there is a way to move forward, even if there is not necessarily a way to make the pain go away completely.

Somewhere there is probably a better obituary for this man, James Hood - the one they called a student who challenged segregation --  we all -- all of us students of color and all those others who profited from being our classmates -- owe James Hood a great debt.  May he rest in peace.