Goodbye Elizabeth

She was one of us was Elizabeth Anania Edwards, a Girl Scout as she told the 1500 people gathered to hear her that morning in '07. We were at an annual event established to honors six or eight “leading women” in the community with a well-known figure brought in to address us.I say “us”: I was a Leading Woman in ’93 and for three months that summer a giant version of my face and the faces of five others hung in various public places around Boston.I didn’t deserve it.  What was I but a newspaper columnist who skulked around eavesdropping on people? But when I heard her talk that day about what mattered to her I was simply inspired; thought, “I can do WAY more for this organization” and began doing it. I volunteered as a counselor on one special day and then began going into our two correctional facilities for women as part of the Beyond Bars program that brings the girls for troop meetings with their incarcerated mums. Once I demonstrated a neck-and-shoulder routine and we talked about the mind-body connection - I was moonlighting as a massage therapist at the time - and once, wearing my writer's hat, I led everyone in a session where we told funny ‘What Was I Thinking’ stories on ourselves.Elizabeth did way more than this of course, even before he re-dedication to good works after the death of her boy. I had always admired her; but that morning I LIKED her so much too. She was already sick, her hair telltale thin from treatment and she did have to rest a while before she could come back out and sign copies of her book for us.I look at this photo now and think “You never looked like that Terry,” though we are twins, born the same year and photographed in the same poses and hairstyles for our various yearbooks.I hope we go to some brightly lit place after the dim mystification of this human living. And I hope she is there, Elizabeth, all well again and smiling that beautiful smile.