Nancy Rose Steinbock, Lindsey’s Aunt
Today, we come together in profound sadness to honor Lindsey’s life. We know her story, we acknowledge her untimely passing. We can remember and share our thoughtful conversations with her. With me, we explored her acute insight into what is demanded in overcoming learning challenges. I treasure those email and Facebook message exchanges which enriched my own work. Her life was not easy but still, she made time for sharing posts on her social media that reflected her regard for the rights of others, for the importance of confronting the hard issues that plague us. Her extraordinary smile — so like her mother’s! — delighted us!
As we navigated those final days, we were reminded of her fortitude in the face of difficult decisions. For those of us who had to experience these last moments from a distance, as best we could, we embraced her, my sister Aimee and Jerry and her sisters, Hayley and Carly as Lindsey passed to a peaceful state. My friend, the poet Christine Boyka Kluge, once wrote upon the death of a young friend when we were the age of Lindsey:
Out you swim, silver soul,
into the indigo night,
the moon a pearl between your lips.
The world no longer holds you
in its coppery cords of
longitude and latitude.
The torn net drifts wide —
you are above the white-capped sea,
trailing your veil of stars.
The night of Lindsey’s death, the sky above our home on an island in the Atlantic, was ablaze with stars. Her presence, now peaceful, remains with us for an eternity. Shine on.