As a young couple moving to Lopez Island, only knowing one soul on the island (a long time friend of Michael’s, Mary Wondra), we had plans that included a travel trailer and the purchase of a piece of land. We asked Mary for ideas of where we could park our temporary home, renting the ground from someone. Mary’s answer was quick and sturdy, “Call my friend Virginia”.
We reached out to Virginia and without skipping a beat she wanted us to come and stay in her driveway. “No need to pay rent just help with the electric bill.” she says. We decided to ‘go with the island flow’ and take her up on her most hospitable offer.
Our arrival was a true island escapade with the trailer not exactly fitting up her curvy driveway and Otto was called with his tractor for help. After hours of finessing that trailer into place, Virginia handed us an extension cord and declared us family.
And so it came to be.
We lived in Virginia’s driveway for 7 months while we searched for our new home. We indeed became family with many shared meals, movie nights, watching the Olympics together on TV, and we all cried when it came time for us move our trailer onto our new property (and it wasn’t because we actually now had to finagle that trailer down the twisty curvy drive…). Somewhere in those 7 months we started a tradition that we called ‘Virginia Night’. Once a week Virginia would come over for dinner and we would sit together around our tiny banquet table in the travel trailer. That tradition continued the entire time that we lived full time on Lopez and we kept up the tradition as we had to make the move to part time…when we were on Lopez there was always ‘Virginia Night’.
Virginia had a fundamental generosity of spirit that we simply stand in awe of. Her perspective was always in a depth that included so many aspects and considerations. When you ask her “why?” the answer was always a delight with twists and turns and a mix of emotional and practical wisdoms. She had a remarkable (and rare) ability to ‘allow’. She had a masterful understanding of the power of laughter and even when her body made no sound, her eyes were sparkling with a (mostly) suppressed humor. She was able to change her point of view and to persuade us to consider new ways of thinking about issues- she was a great friend in that way too!
She was as grounded in the unseen as well as the mundane and enjoyed an expanded world view as a result. (We formed this opinion based on hundreds of hours of amazing conversations).
Virginia was one of the most talented energy workers that we have ever met.
Virginia was at the birth of our daughter Xan where we all celebrated with chocolate cake and champagne.
Virginia rekindled our affection for cribbage and we were warmly welcomed into the Sunday morning breakfast cribbage game.
Virginia was a grand part of teaching us some very important concepts of what it means to be actively a part of a community.
The light just got brighter somewhere- Virginia has arrived!