Sharon Peterson told me that Peggy Lewis had died in an email. I remember Peggy well, she was one of the Green Party of California's better statewide leaders. We'd gone to the same camping trips a number of times and I had nothing but respect for what she had done. I felt a strong need to go to her funeral service. I tried to get a ride up there, but had zero luck. To make a long story short, Gerry and I took Caltrain to BART to Bay Point station and rode our bikes the last eight miles or so. I got there just as the service was beginning. This is what I saw.

     

The preacher began the service with a prayer and a few wise words. Then he shifted into an MC type role, first introducing Peggy's niece who did a bible reading, and then Peggy's sister who talked about Peggy's life.

Peggy and her sister had been close during the time when they were growing up. Then Linda had become a mom and raised her family, while Peggy had visited 30 different countries, and had lived and worked several of them. Linda had only been dimly aware of that period until later because she had been busy raising her family. Then after Peggy had retired to Spain she'd gotten a dreadfully confusing phone call from someone speaking Spanish that caused her enough concern that she had to go to Spain and figure out what was really going on. It turned out that Peggy had been marooned in a hospital room by a stroke, and the best thing to do was bring her home. She'd done that, and during the last two years the sisters had traded stories and grown a lot closer. She'd hoped that Peggy would last through the holidays, but that didn't happen.

     

Then the preacher opened it up to the rest of us to share what we'd done with and known of Peggy.

The guy in the blue shirt had known her as a fellow member of the congregation of the church we were in. He felt that her energy had been awesome. She had taken him to heights of enlightenment with her shining humanity.

The woman in polka dots had worked with Peggy in Sacramento in the jails. She said that if everybody Peggy had taught to read there was here it would have taken five auditoriums this size to hold us all, and the average color of the crowd would be a lot browner. She had a lot of respect for what Peggy had done, and felt that all of us are better off for her efforts.

     

Craig (gray pants) had known Peggy as a fellow Green Party activist. He felt that if we hadn't succeeded in building a successful new political party it was because that isn't possible in the system we find ourselves part of here. Despite that, he was deeply grateful for the times he'd shared with Peggy.

The woman in the dark coat had been Peggy's in home caregiver this past couple of years. She said that Peggy had always been nice, even when she was in great pain. She said that was much better than some of her other patients had been and she is truly sad Peggy is gone.

Borenstein (brown coat) remembered driving up and down the central valley visiting Green Party groups in different counties with Peggy as representatives of the Green Party of California. She had always been enthusiastic, and it had helped a lot.

     

The woman in blue had known Peggy as a fellow parishioner at the church and was awed that despite the fact that Peggy was confined to a wheelchair she still started a local literacy program to help the homeless get their feet under them in this complicated world we all have to deal with.

Pat Gray (red beads) said that yes, what Peggy did had been important, but there is still much to do to move the issues that would make our world more sustainable forward. She pointed out that it is for us, the living, to step up and keep the struggle going on.

Linda (grey vest) said that she usually stays near home, but Peggy had needed someone to go to Spain with on that trip when she had picked out her retirement home. Those three weeks had really been a highlight in her life, and they had found the place where Peggy lived until her stroke, years later.

     

The service was ended by Peggy's sister's son in law singing a couple of songs. We were invited to sing along, which was made easy by the words scrolling across the video screens above the stage.

After the service we gossiped for a while at the back of the hall. I found out that Borenstein had been wounded seriously twice in the past couple of years, as well as having to deal with cancer from smoking. He's now quit doing that. There was some talk of organizing a Peggy Lewis memorial camping trip.

There was a couple of bulletin boards crammed with pictures from her life, which I took pictures of:

Then we went to a reception at Peggy's sisters home. They brought the boards along. I found myself talking to somebody about the events for some of the ones I remember.

     

I think that one was from the 2004 Green Party Convention in Milwaukee, but it might have been 2000 in Colorado.

For sure that one was from one of our camping trips.

It was a private event, and I didn't know a lot of the people. Most of them were family, and I didn't want to impose by clicking pictures to put on a public website. However, I did want to bring attention to the excellent coffee, which was 100% Hawaiian.

     

Peggy's sister took us on a tour, showing Peggy's room and the modifications they had to make to the place so she could live there. Basically it involved widening the doorways so and making the floor 100% flat. Peggy needed that to move her wheel chair around. She said that the first time Peggy used the shower she said it had been two years since the last time she'd done that. They had thought about building some kind of way for her to move up to the other parts of the house, but that had turned out not to be practical. It had been enough that Peggy was comfortable. We were all grateful for that.

     

On the way home I noticed a very cool feature at the Pittsburgh/Bay Point BART station. Most of the floor was brick, which was very bumpy to ride over. However, there was a foot wide ribbon of smooth black bricks that were perfect for riding a bike on. You can't see in the picture, but that ribbon is far enough away from where the pedestrians really want to be that it's a good line for bicycles. Excellent design feature!