As passionate as she was about her shelter work, Mitch was truly the love of her life.
Knowing her as I did, I can tell you that her only regret about her decision to go out on the road that night would have been that her husband, Mitch, is now left to carry on without her. We can second guess Liza's decision with 20/20 hindsight, or we can embrace the fact that she died doing something she believed in so deeply. Of course, we now know that she never made it to that family. She would have set any thoughts for her safety aside and gone to their aid, and that's exactly what she did. She would have worried about their empty stomachs and imagined the sound of that baby's crying. Yes, maybe they would have been alright until morning, but that wasn't how Liza would have thought about it. When you combine the facts that Liza was a compassionate soul and willing to take risks, it's not difficult to understand why she ventured out in that terrible snowstorm on Wednesday night to try to take food and diapers to one of her families in need. I say, "her families" with all seriousness because she didn't just take them into shelters she really took them into her heart and kept contact with them even after their lives were back on track.
Her work as director of our local family shelter became her greatest passion, and she put in tireless hours organizing meals and places where "her families" could all stay together until they could get back on their feet. She never met a person in need that she didn't find some way of helping. More than a simple risk taker, Liza also had a generous soul, as I'm sure many of you here this morning can attest to. Luckily she wound up with nothing more than skinned knees and a sheepish grin that said she couldn't believe she had just done that, but it just goes to show what a risk taker she was. Liza, being fearless, decided to give it a try.Īs she swung out over the edge, one of the boys jokingly called out, "Jump!" My heart leaped to my throat as I saw Liza let go of the rope on her next swing out. Some of the neighborhood boys had built a rope swing in a tree along the ravine's edge. I have to share one memory that really illustrates Liza's fearless, and sometimes impulsive, nature.
Half of our summers were spent wandering through the woods, looking for crayfish under rocks along the creek, climbing trees, and generally doing things that would have given our parents gray hair much sooner if they knew what we had been up to each day. When I think of Liza as a child, I remember how much she loved exploring the ravine behind our house.
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