[Oe List ...] Remembering Barbara

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

Dear Marilyn,
 
Your sweet and tender tributes to Barbara and other colleagues who have  
left us care for us all. Thank you.
 
Love and blessings to you and Joe,
Jann McGuire
 
 
In a message dated 6/15/2013 2:59:07 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
marilyncrocker at juno.com writes:

 
Dear Pat and family, 
You and I communicated in 2011 at the time of Bill’s  passing, and again, 
may I extend my condolences to you on the loss of Barbara,  one terrific 
lady. 
I first met Barb in 1968 on the West Side of Chicago when  my husband, Joe, 
and I arrived for an “intern year” with the Ecumenical  Institute – a 
commitment that extended for 22 more years as we became members  of the Order 
Ecumenical.  Barb was then Barbara Pouler, and I’m not sure  she had yet even 
met Bill.  The EI staff lived in the former Bethany  Seminary, just off the 
Eisenhower Expressway, and there always seemed to be  “repairs and 
improvements” necessary.  As part of our discipline, we had  quarterly “work weekends
” when we scraped and painted and transformed the  spaces used by 
participants in regular weekend courses as well as apartments  used by staff 
families.  Barb and I were often assigned to the same  “team” and her company and 
philosophical conversations made those long,  laborious hours so full of 
delight for me – always replete with lots of  laughter.  Barb helped me to 
mollify my tendency to take  everything so seriously. 
In 1976 I had the treat of being assigned to work with Barb  and Bill in 
Kreutsburg Ost, Germany and El Bayad, Egypt, where my role was to  train them 
to take over two of the leadership roles Joe and I had played the  year 
before in facilitating the first 8 Human Development Consults.  What  a gift 
they were  --and such a pair of “quick studies” in the complex  research and 
planning processes of the week-long consult in the local  community, plus 
another week writing the summary document – a key tool for  garnering funding 
for the local socio-economic renewal projects – Barb with  her easy-going “
well let’s think this through another way” approach, and Bill  with his 
proactive “let’s get moving or we’ll never pull this off!”  I  loved them both 
so much and consider the 2+ months I worked with them a  treasure – even tho
’ that “assignment” had required that I leave Maliwada  village in India 
(and my husband and 5 year-old twin sons) just three weeks  after we had 
arrived from NYC!  I’m sure Bill and Barb filled you in over  the years on those 
quick-turnaround responses to “the mission.” 
What I beheld in Bill and Barbara’s relationship was akin  to what I have 
been blessed with – true and unconditional love.  My  husband, Joe, 14 years 
my senior, and now 85, is wrestling with progressive  memory loss; Bill was 
10 years younger than Barb, and must have mourned the  loss of her presence 
and spark as his partner in so many activities,  especially after she 
entered the long term care facility. I hope her last days  were comfortable, and 
that her two years without Bill had some significant  meaning and spiritual 
substance.  I say this without knowing at all what  her illness or frailty 
was, but believing that if such were within reach, she  would embrace it. 
When Bill and Barb visited us here in West Newfield, ME  about 10 years 
ago, they gifted us with a lovely Crate and Barrel bowl – far  more generous 
than the usual overnight guest’s gift.  I fill it with  bananas, grapes, 
strawberries, tomatoes – variously, whatever the season – and  always think of 
them.  The other image from their visit is a funny  one:  at that time our 
guest room was on the first floor (now it is on  the 2nd with queen sized bed 
and private bath) and the old  fashioned double bed only allowed one night 
table with lamp in the far corner  – plus the guests would have to trek to 
the bathroom through the living room  and the dining room!  Ever the one to 
care responsibly for space  requirements and intellectual pursuits, Barb asked 
me – “So, kiddo, how  will Bill (who chose to sleep on the side near the 
door in order to get to the  bathroom quickly) be able to read HIS book if we’
ve only got one light?”   We immediately hooked up a floor lamp. J 
That is such the Barb Alerding I love!! 
Please know that as long as many of us continue “on this  mortal plain,” I 
will hold Barbara before us as one of the first “new” women –  of the ilk 
that have, indeed, shaped history. 
With love and appreciation, 
Marilyn 
Marilyn R.  Crocker, Ed.D 
123 Sanborn  Rd 
West  Newfield, ME 04095 



_______________________________________________
OE  mailing  list
OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20130616/d0ebff4b/attachment.html>