Leila Parmee

On the afternoon of Friday, December 30, the world became a little less joyful and vibrant with the passing of my mom, Leila Parmee, at the age of 93. Mom was her bubbly, gregarious self right up until the end, enjoying Christmas parties with friends on the 24th and 25th and dispensing advice and showing pictures of her grandkids to the ICU nurses as they wheeled her to the OR for heart bypass surgery on Wednesday morning.

Mom had an incredibly full life — full of adventure, sailing across the ocean to America on her own in her 20s to pursue a degree at Stanford University on a Fulbright scholarship, then coming to Tucson for a PhD in Education and a place at the heart of a lively Indian community; and full of love, from a vast extended circle of friends near and far, young and old, and family, including especially her two beloved grandchildren, Zephyr and Zoe.

I know that those of you who knew her will dearly miss her sparkle and her energy and her spirit. Knowing that she touched so many lives and was special to so, so many people will make it a just a little easier for me to bear her loss, as I realize that her light will live on in all of you who remember her fondly. So please think of her with a smile, and share a cup of tea with a friend and reminisce about happy times you spent with her, and know that you all meant the world to her.