[Dialogue] Teresa Lingafelter -- a fine remembrance of Teresa from Catherine Whitney

[Beret Griffith]

Thank you Jim.

On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 10:07 PM E B via Dialogue <
dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> Thank you James Wiegel for this nice tribute to Teresa Lingafilter.
> I met Teresa and Bob at the Cebu House in the early 70's.
> She was kind and welcoming. I admired her sharp wit.
> I'm sending her off with love and prayers for peace.
>
> Elsa Batica
> St Paul, MN
>
> On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, 05:23:45 PM CDT, James Wiegel via Dialogue <
> dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>
> TERESA LINGAFELTER, BELOVED FRIEND – MAY 10, 2020
>
> Teresa was physically small, but she had a big presence. I think anyone
> who knew her would agree with that. She was razor sharp intellectually, and
> for that reason she could be testy sometimes, even gruff. In all the years
> I knew her, I can’t remember Teresa ever letting an idiotic statement stand
> without rebuttal. If you were the one spouting the idiocy, it could sting.
> But then, an instant after she slayed your foolish dragon, she would open
> up with a laugh, a silly joke, a sweetness and a vulnerability that was
> disarming and warming. She was a good friend.
> Teresa was always youthful, with her wide, devilish smile, her forceful
> point of view, her robust struggles and great delights. But in other ways
> she seemed older than her years. When I first met her and her husband Bob,
> along with the band of miscreants who formed a community development cadre
> at the University of Washington we called Ithaca (yes, after Ithaca of the
> Odyssey), she was much more mature than me. I skated on the surface; Teresa
> was deep. She set me straight on many occasions, and I loved her for it.
> After the UW, Teresa and I lived through various cycles, including working
> together during an intense period in the seventies when we put our minds to
> the big idea of social change. After Bob died in 1996, there was a new
> dimension to our relationship—the humbling fact of our fragility.
> If we’re lucky, there are people who come along in life and completely
> upend the way we think and live. Teresa was like that for me, as was Bob.
> The Lingafelters barreled into the world, working in some of the most
> crisis-stricken parts of the nation and the globe, and shook progress from
> the trees. They were talented and committed, and after Bob died, Teresa
> proved that she was a genius in urban planning. All those footprints of
> change. It was something to watch.
> Down through the decades, separated by place, circumstances and divergent
> careers, our little Ithaca group survived as a touchstone of our lives,
> separate and common. We started getting together occasionally a while
> ago—kind of a “what’s up?” retreat. More recently we’ve met every two years
> for a few days at a wonderful house on Whidbey Island in Washington State.
> I describe these gatherings to friends as college reunions, but they’re not
> exactly that—more about the future than about memories. We talk about the
> issues of the day, the change we can make in our disparate corners, and
> what it will look like to grow old together. That’s what grieves me
> most—the idea that I won’t grow old with Teresa.
> We were looking ahead to our next gathering when Covid struck. My last
> view of Teresa was on March 21, smiling out of her Zoom box on our first
> group get-together. She didn’t make it to the second. A brain tumor, hidden
> from view, its effects masked by the strains of the circumstances
> surrounding Covid, sneaked up on her while everyone’s attention was focused
> elsewhere. She didn’t survive the ordeal.
> The loss is unspeakable, but in poetry Teresa’s steady voice speaks to me.
> I can close my eyes and hear Teresa reciting lines from a poem by DH
> Lawrence, an old favorite called We are Transmitters:
> Give, and it shall be given unto you
> is still the truth about life.
> But giving life is not so easy.
> It doesn't mean handing it out to some mean fool, or letting the living
> dead eat you up.
> It means kindling the life-quality where it was not,
> even if it's only in the whiteness of a washed pocket-handkerchief.
>
> Go in peace, Teresa.
>
>
> Jim Wiegel <http://partnersinparticipation.com/?page_id=123>
>
> “That which consumes me is not man, nor the earth, nor the heavens, but
> the flame which consumes man, earth, and sky."  Nikos Kazantzakis
>
> 401 North Beverly Way,Tolleson, Arizona 85353
>
> 623-363-3277
>
> jfwiegel at yahoo.com <marilyn.oyler at gmail.com>
>
> www.partnersinparticipation.com
>
>
> On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, 02:39:48 PM MST, Michael Shaw via Dialogue <
> dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>
> Friends,
>
> Molly received a phone call this afternoon from Sarah Phillips today
> telling her that Teresa Lingafelter passed away on Mother's Day. The link
> below was from a GoFundMe page that was set up by Teresa's daughter,
> Rebecca. There are 3 separate posts that share the last days of Teresa's
> journey.
>
> https://www.gofundme.com/f/teresa-lingafelter-home-care
>
> Peace,
>
> Michael Shaw
> d.michael.shaw at comcast.net
> 040414
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