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Blog archive

November 2024

October 2024

ARBORIST WALK: NOT FOR TREE HUGGERS ONLY!
10/29/2024

Bill Wishner: Visual Hunter
10/29/2024

Can a Village Group Fix Our Healthcare System?
10/29/2024

Community Board Directors Strengthen Village Board
10/29/2024

Connecting with Village Connections: The A, B, C, & D’s of Medicare @ 65+
10/29/2024

Grief is a Journey: Two Paths Taken
10/29/2024

Message from the President
10/29/2024

Promoting Informed & Involved Voters
10/29/2024

What Will Be Your Legacy?
10/29/2024

1619, Approaching the Election...
10/27/2024

Beyond and Within the Village - A Star is Born
10/17/2024

Happiness by Priscilla Leonard
10/11/2024

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden
10/11/2024

Unpainted Door by Louise Gluck
10/11/2024

In the Evening by Billy Collins
10/10/2024

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
10/10/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

Betty Kilby, A Family History
10/01/2024

September 2024

August 2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

1619 Wide Ranging Interests
08/19/2024

First Anniversary
08/19/2024

Alexandra Leaving by Leonard Cohen
08/16/2024

Muse des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden
08/16/2024

The God Abandons Antony by Constantinos P. Cavafy
08/16/2024

Ch – Ch – Ch –Changes
08/15/2024

Cultural Activities Team offers an ‘embarrassment of riches’
08/15/2024

Engaging in Pasadena Village
08/15/2024

Future Housing Options
08/15/2024

Message from the President
08/15/2024

There Are Authors Among Us
08/15/2024

Villagers Welcome New Members at the Tournament Park Picnic
08/15/2024

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
08/14/2024

A narrow Fellow in the Grass by Emily Dickinson
08/13/2024

Haikus
08/13/2024

One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
08/13/2024

Poem 20 by Pablo Neruda
08/13/2024

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
08/13/2024

Trees by Joyce Kilmer
08/13/2024

July 2024

June 2024

May 2024

Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024

Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024

Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024

Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024

Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024

Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024

Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024

Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024

Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024

Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024

Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024

No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024

An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024

Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024

Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024

The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024

Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024

April 2024

March 2024

February 2024

January 2024

Gifts of Love

By Susan Kujawa
Posted: 04/06/2023
Tags: bios, karen bagnard

Gifts of Love – by Karen Bagnard and Susan Kujawa

On the south wall of the Village office hangs a gift of love… a quilt handcrafted by Lois Stelzer. It looks like a great stained glass window. With rich fabrics, meticulous stitches and powerful colors, this gift from Lois is a labor of love.

Lois was a member of our Village for too short a time. She was quiet and somewhat shy, but she expressed herself beautifully in her art – the art of creating quilts. She was so skilled that several of her quilts are owned by the Autry Museum. Karen Bagnard, a long-time Village member, is also an artist and she and Lois soon made a deep connection.

Not long after joining the Village, Lois learned that she had terminal liver cancer. As a very private person, she was reluctant to share this bad news. “I don’t want a bunch of strangers calling me”, she insisted. However, with Karen’s encouragement, Lois did share her news with a few others in the Village.

Later, Karen and a few other Villagers, arranged for an art show of Lois’s quilts. They displayed them on the walls of the Village conference room. At the opening reception, Lois spoke about her quilting and what it meant to her. Many of her quilting friends attended the reception, and Lois was delighted to see them. She enjoyed answering their many questions about various pieces.

Lois lived only a few more months. She had no family, but the Village had become her family. Several members of the Village attended her memorial service in her home. They got to see her amazing studio and many more of her works of art displayed there. Later we learned she had left a generous donation to the Village in addition to the beautiful quilt now hanging in our office.

Lois’s quilt reminds us of the many gifts made to us by other Village members, both living and deceased. Tangible gifts such as donations. Gifts of help where needed, such as rides or phone calls. And the gift of memories left behind by those who have passed away. Each gift is an expression of a core value of Pasadena Village – that we all have something we need, and we all have something to give.

 

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