This is Rusty with her son David, the sweet gentle soul that cared for her through all of her later years and was there tending her, loving her until the end. This is how they were - inseparable companions, thought of as one Rustydavid and kevetching devotees of each other. They are and were some of my best friends. They supported me in all I did often traveling out of town to see my art shows, writing long letters to me when they traveled around the US and Europe. I mattered to them and them to me and I will miss Rusty the rest of my days. Amazing woman, great friend, encouraging soul, laughing, twinkling eyes; a person not given to the modern un-friending of someone on facebook, a woman devoted to peace who would even from her wheelchair protest the wars going on now. A woman who went to college and received a degree at 60 and a masters in psychology a few years later. She raised 5 children after the loss of her right hand when she was a right handed individual. She learned to write, paint, nurture and everything a person needs to do, with her left hand. I am in awe of her.
Rusty as a young mother.
These are the handset poetry chapbooks that Rusty published herself with ONE HAND from her Sagittarius Press. A press that used handset type letters and ran with sheer brute strength with a hand turned wheel.
Rusty and David as I first met them. Rusty and the twinkle in her eye, the soul that was always smiling and encouraging.
Several paintings that Rusty did were placed around the foyer of the church. This landscape piece with its beautiful bridge made me think of Rusty crossing over into a beautiful garden and it gave me a great deal of peace. As if a painting she did years ago, was really meant to comfort and reassure us today.
A painting that Rusty did of a backyard playhouse.
I thank God I knew her and met her in 1976 and for all this time and all the time to come, I am honored and deeply privileged to call her friend.
