From Tracey Catanach in New York

Thursday, February 28, 2008

From Tracey Catanach in New York

I haven't ever met Lisa in person. I've known her for a short amount of time on various Yahoo Unschooling groups (FUNNY and then RUNNY), but I never quite got around to making the trip to her home for a meeting.

I have always respected Lisa and her family, and looked to them for guidance in this "radical" unschooling journey. I have learned SO MUCH from Lisa's posts and generosity. Whether the "discussion" was a Socrates quote or making financial decisions as a family, I've always looked forward to reading Lisa's replies.

Reading back through her posts today, I've re-learned a few things as well...and here's one of my favorite things that Lisa had to say:

[Lisa Heyman] I always find it interesting when life interrupts an intended journey - perhaps indicating there is another path that is of more significance at the moment.

:) Thank you for continuing to make me think, Lisa!

~Tracey Catanach in Western New York

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About This Blog

Lisa was buried yesterday, February 27, 20008, very near her home in Lake Peekskill, New York. The part of New York where she was "laid to rest"* is just to the east of the beautiful Hudson River and is notable for its verdant, rolling hills. The site where she was buried is, if my navigational skills are intact, in a western-facing slope of one of these hills, providing the viewer with a breathtaking vision of hills and valleys.

If standing on a rather steep slope under a steely
February sky with a biting, chilly wind weren't, um, challenging enough, the slushy snow and ice underfoot definitely added an intensity to the moment. Every now and again, someone would succumb and suddenly slip, even though they were standing still.

Yet, somehow we were warm, all of us there together. (We reminded me, just a little, of the penguins who huddle in Antarctica. Okay. Perhaps I'm exaggerating just a tad!)

The rabbi who conducted the service (I didn't catch his name) was eloquent and impassioned. As Liam's young friend Ben said as we drove home later, "How could he not be? He had excellent material to work with." So true. You really got the sense, you knew that this man knew Who Lisa was. He was thorough and kind.

When the opportunity for the mourners to speak came, I stepped up with my 20-page-long list of messages, some lengthy, some brief, that had been sent from very near and very far. Before I left the house for the funeral, I timed the reading of the whole thing and found it to exceed 30 minutes' duration! And that was with some editing. I felt that I couldn't do that to this slipping-and- sliding, shivering bunch. So, although I was prepared to read all the submissions, I read only one rather concise piece and told folks that they could look at the tribute blog I am creating to see the rest in all their unabridged beauty. You are here now.

For a while, there, last year, Lisa and I and a couple of other local unschoolers (Mary Ann and Robin) were trying to get an unschooling information night going for folks who expressed an interest in learning about unschooling. I believe it was Lisa's idea, and she invited me to participate ~ how incredibly honored I felt! For some reason tonight, after the funeral, I looked back through our email exchanges; we were
working on refining the notices for the event and the event itself. Looking through these emails, I felt a sharp pain in my heart that I will not be having these exchanges any longer with this impossibly wonderful, bright, sweet person.

We also talked about her puzzling, frustrating illness in many of these emails; the illness, by the way, precluded our ever getting this thing off the ground. It was the consensus of the three of us, Mary Ann, Robin, and me, that Lisa and Roxanne and Ruby were indispensable; I felt they could have gotten along without me just fine, but I couldn't imagine the thing without Lisa. ::sigh::

I'm really rambling when I ought to be sleeping. If you're moved to add a contribution to this tribute and you haven't already sent me something, please do send me something now. It'll never be too late.

Sending you love,

Marji

** For the record, while Lisa's body may have been "laid to rest," I believe her spirit SOARS and will never, ever "rest." (Okay, maybe for a moment or two.) I believe she is as proactive in spirit as she was in the flesh and she is still spreading her joyful Lisa-ness now everywhere.

Tribute to Lisa Heyman (October 31, 1960 - February 25, 2008)

Thursday, February 28, 2008