|
It grieves me greatly to learn
of the death of Marianne Hoffman.
Marianne was one of the older
members of the sosmail email list, and was a
very frequent contributor when she was active.
I remember
her unfailing courtesy and helpfulness.
She was always ready
with a word of kindness and support to those who were struggling
with sobriety issues, as was she herself.
She had a rich store
of personal wisdom and I learned a great deal from her warmth
and her tenacity in solving problems.
Two of her posts to the
list are in the Keepers collection. They
are
http://www.unhooked.com/keepers/proud_to_say_it.htm
and
http://www.unhooked.com/keepers/secretshame.htm
She also contributed to the
famous "Drinking At" keeper, at
http://www.unhooked.com/keepers/drinking_at.htm
and to the Survival in the Air
keeper:
http://www.unhooked.com/keepers/survivair.htm
Marianne was also the Food
& Beverage pagemaster of this web site. She was one of the first to create her own department
on the web site. When she
began she knew very little about
web design, but she was eager to master the topic, and I came to admire
her extraordinary energy and intelligence. She taught
herself how to create and maintain a whole elaborate interlinked
section of web pages, in which she brought useful knowledge about good eating and nutrition to our recovery
community. Her work is here still; you can see it and admire
it at
http://www.unhooked.com/food&bev/index.html.
I will always treasure the warm
and close working relationship we built
up together through her work on the web site.
She was a true friend.
She was not a person who would let age, illness or technology
daunt her. She saw her
sobriety as a challenge to conquer
new frontiers, to explore and take risks, and to make herself
useful. That she did, most
admirably so.
In the past year, Marianne's
time was more and more taken up by the
need to care for her husband Charlie, whose serious illness became
the central focus of her activities.
She took a leave of absence
from the email list and then from her position as unhooked.com pagemaster.
I had the privilege of corresponding with
her privately by email, and seeing glimpses of the extraordinary devotion and energy with which she cared for the
ailing Charlie. She was the strong one, and he needed her.
In all her posts, she never
mentioned herself and her own condition. I learn only now, after the fact, that she herself was
suffering from a serious
illness. She died on Sunday,
Aug. 29, at 3 pm in a hospital
in Park City Utah, her adopted home town.
I will greatly miss Marianne. Those of you who remember Marianne and wish to send messages of condolences, I believe they
can be addressed to Albro Wilson, albrow@sprintmail.com. I think Marianne
would want her friends and family to know that she was a cherished member of this particular cyber-community, and
that she is greatly missed
here by those of us who shared the wires
with her.
--
Marty N. |
LifeRing
Home
