When I was at Monmouth College last week, I happened upon the most recent issue of the College’s alumni magazine. As I quickly turned the pages, a name popped out at me. In the list of newly deceased members was the name of Cynthia Lust, an alumna and member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter in the late 1970s. The name hit me. We had met only once in my life, but it was an important meeting for me and what I do today. In 1991, after the Pi Beta Phi Convention in St. Louis, she had resigned her volunteer position as Lambda Collegiate Province President. Shortly after that, I received a call asking if I would serve the year left in her term. So a few weeks later, on a Saturday, Dan, the kids, and I drove up to Champaign, a three-hour drive on the flattest land we’d ever seen. I think it was a rainy day. He dropped me off at Cynthia’s apartment and then took the kids somewhere, perhaps a movie. During the next few hours, she trained me in what was required of the job. When Dan arrived back, he wrangled the small filing cabinet and its contents down to the mini-van. I likely sent her a note thanking her for the time together. And our paths never crossed again, yet I was so sorry to read of her passing from ALS at such a young age.
Later, as a few of us were sitting in the kitchen of Holt House, Pi Phi’s founding home, one of the HQ staffers who was at the dedication, was reading e-mails. She told us that a Georgia Alpha member had been killed in a car crash and that there were other sororities affected, too. Brittany Feldman was the Pi Phi who was killed. The Tri Delta chapter lost Halle Scott and Alpha Chi Omega lost Kayla Canedo and Christina Semeria. How sad for the entire University of Georgia community. My heart breaks for their family and friends. Agnes Kim remains in critical condition and healing thoughts are sent to Athens.
Yesterday, a message from a long-time friend told of her diagnosis of cancer. Not wanting to announce it to the world on facebook, she nonetheless wanted to tell us about it. It was as if someone punched me in the stomach. I hurt for her.
Life is precious. It is a fact I know all too well. I started writing this blog to help me through my sister’s death (http://wp.me/p20I1i-1j4). The only things that really matters in this life are the people who touch our lives and give it meaning. Things don’t matter. Status doesn’t matter. The ones we love and who love us in return are the only things that matter. Zadie Smith’s quote “Time is how you spend your love,” keeps running through my mind. My prayers to those who are hurting.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2016. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohisto
