Ferol
So difficult to believe that our precious Linda has left us. All of our family is still staggering from the loss. But, she will live forever in our hearts and in the lives of the literally thousands of lives she influenced for the better. Much deserved attention has been given to the two best known and most successful charities she began, but there were many, many othersâ??for years, the Annapolis â??Walk for Heart in Memory of Charlotte Adler Stern,â? began at the Naval Academy Stadium and earned important contributions for the local Heart Association. Later there were the Thanksgiving dinners organized at Camp Letts; these and others led up to Giving Back, Lindaâ??s Legacy and 4uganda.org. Perhaps less well known were the individual and varied animal rescues in which she participated and organized, and the individual people she helped throughout the years. The love and care she provided to her own animals over the yearsâ??Macaroni, Claude, Daisy, Bold Ruler, Yolanda, Artichoke to name only a very fewâ??was legend. Who among us could forget, the two sets of baby chicks she presented to our daughter, her Godchild, (several years apart, of course.) We had better luck with the second set. Raised them to adulthood and were able to repatriate the rooster, Marcory, (a portmanteau for Lindaâ??s boys) to Honeysuckle Farm. In support of Lindaâ??s love of animals, we once we stopped traffic on Generalâ??s Hwy, helping her carry signs against the expansion of hunting in Maryland. Her concern for the mountain gorillas was behind her launch of the Ugandan charity. Her love of people continued it.When the phone rings, I expect to hear Lindaâ??s voice. Iâ??m gone back to read the literary hundreds of emails in my Linda G file because my inbox is empty. My children and grandchildren continue to weep. No Aunt Linda for Christmas dinner. We are selfishly grieving our own profoundly deep personal loss. We should grieve more for her family, for her other friends, for the world, but there are thirty-seven years of memories to sort through first. And, yet, we know Linda can never leave us. I think I just heard her voice coming to me, not from the phone line, but from the sunbeam that just broke through the dark sky above. If love counts, Linda will live forever. all the DOUGHERTYS