When artist Anna Pardini entered a nursing home at age 87, family and friends encouraged her to keep painting. Each week she would illustrate a brief thought gleaned from conversations and observations of those around her. She then displayed the artwork on a bulletin board outside her room to encourage the other residents. Before retiring, she had been an art teacher specializing in Chinese brushwork, and also sculpted wood and played the harp. Not even a series of strokes in her old age could keep her from these loves, and she worked hard to regain her artistic abilities. A widow for thirteen years, she refused to succumb to discouragement, but lived on with a vibrancy that put younger people to shame and inspired all who met her.

Anna died on April 2. A memorial boulder, dedicated by hundreds of her friends on June 20, lies on the wild slopes of Big Indian Mountain, where she and her husband lived for years. It features a hand-carved heart emblazoned with a cross, as she would have it.

–Jeanie Mercer