In Rhode Island with Uncle Tommy (far left), Louisa, Andrew, Lindsay, and Steve

From Uncle Tommy LaFarge:

I’m writing to join you in mourning the passing of your mother, that pillar of strength who was also a fountain of mirth and wisdom who must be missed by anyone who knew her, but you in particular of course. She meant a great deal to me when I was at Groton and used to come visit, to New York and to the River Farm, then at college and after. She got me my first teaching job in 1969, at the St. Thomas Choir School, and so kept me out of the army and out of Vietnam with an occupational deferment that held up till they ran the lottery. Then she got me my second job, replacing Wally Shawn as Latin teacher at the Day School. After that I stayed in teaching for my whole working career, and I can also say that she taught me a lot about teaching and particularly about setting up a rapport with adolescents, at which she was really good. She handled waifs and strays with great generosity, and I guess I was one of them for a stretch there, though I was thinking both of her students and also of Marvin Cohen, whom you may remember from E. 78th Street. A fiction writer who taught part-time at the Day School, he would come to your house for dinner after work, stay the night, and eat everything in the refrigerator, but everything. Your mother was very funny about it and totally forgiving. In all my memories she is young and funny, and it pains me to think that she had to go through that long ordeal with cancer, though I know she handled it with grace and courage.

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