When I received the simple statement on my phone that our good friend and neighbor, Debbie, had just died of heart failure in the hospital my first feeling was a deep sense of loss and my first thought was “How do we go on now?” These thoughts and feelings continued to develop and flow through my mind over the course of the next week. Each member of our family, team and group of neighbors had different ways of expressing their loss and their grief over Debbie’s death, but there was a clear theme that I think Erika put into words the best way possible when she said, “I just feel weaker without her here.”

Debbie was a strong-spirited, dignified woman who loved to laugh and make jokes. She was an ever present personality who always seemed to be up even when things looked down. Her words of encouragement and love were real and valuable because they were not easily given, you had to earn them. Once you had earned her trust though it was clear that you were now “family”.

Our family was privileged to know and love Debbie over the last two and a half years as her neighbor. But even more than that we were known and loved by her. When I asked Isaac, what his favorite memory of Miss Debbie was he simply said “My favorite thing about Ms. Debbie was that she loved my mommy.”

Her desire to see things grow, to heal broken things and to be a good neighbor were self evident. She served others as a part of our Carter Street Block Club and she always lent a helping hand when she could. She was the epitome of dignity and would rarely allow others to do for her what she could do for herself. It was obvious that her many years of physical illness had broken her body but it would never break her spirit.

We will greatly miss her as a family member, a friend and a neighbor. It is very rare indeed to have a relationship as rich as Erika and Debbie had. In fact, we all were stronger with her around.  As we seek to see our way forward without Debbie’s indelible spirit we are challenged with a quote brought close to our hearts from one well versed in love and loss, Mother Teresa…”Love until it hurts and then keep on loving some more.”

Posted on February 2nd, 2009 by Michael
Filed under: Community Development, Family & Friends, News