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‘Do not return. If you can bear to, stay
dead with the dead. The dead have their own tasks.
But help me, if you can without distraction,
As what is farthest sometimes helps: in me.’
A woman of worth who can find,
for her price is far above rubies. (Jewish Prayer)
It is a very difficult thing to write an obituary as a testimony to someone. It is so personal and partial, yet also it should do that person the justice of accuracy. I hope the people who knew Erika (and even those who did not) will recognize her in what I say.
Erika told me that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is incurable, on a Wednesday evening early in June last year. Yet we still went on to do a workshop with our students two days later, in which she told them the awful news, and even then we worked, and the workshop proceeded as planned. It says something about her tenacity, sense of purpose, professionalism, that things should carry on. Erika even made a joke of it. She was keen on the term ‘inviting the unexpected’, by which she meant being open to the surprises, new discoveries, and pockets of learning that can emerge, especially in large group learning events. Fate would have it that this was a case of ‘expecting the uninvited’. Fortunately, the operation in July bought her enough time to reconcile herself with the inevitability of death within a year.
She was very brave and resourceful about it. She took piano lessons, learnt to draw and paint, went to concerts and museums, dashing about at high speed in her red motorized wheelchair. She