Dear Stephen and James,
Deeply, deeply saddened to read your email, it feels very strange, wrong to speak or write of Marina in the past tense.
Only last month she and I corresponded and, as always, her emails were full of life energy and life-giving energy.
Marina was, is, a force for the good and the right.
Every fibre of her being seemed impelled to make the world better, in her way, with her vision which seemed led by the certainty that goodness will lead and galvanise more goodness.
I recall the Passover Seder that Marina, Eddie and I arranged in Rwanda in 2004 at The Intercontinental Hotel when I came to install the two stained glass windows that you had commissioned me to make for the National Genocide Memorial Centre. Although working 25 hours each day to get ready for the opening, somehow you both found time to come to the Seder. I asked your parents if you really could permit yourselves time to come to the Seder. Marina answered that you would find time, just as you would succeed in getting the centre open – a vast task that to me seemed a massive mission impossible.
Marina’s quiet reply expressed a granite-chiselled confidence in you both.
Marina is one of those rare people who will always be a strong presence in those who knew her and will influence their thoughts and deeds.
May her memory be a blessing to Eddie, to you and all your families.
Ardyn
