Seven years ago, I met Sabrina in the street while we were both trying to get as close as we could to a Backstreet Boys concert along Storrow Drive in Boston. We happened to be standing near each other trying to see over something, and we ended up talking and we hit it off immediately. She seemed like a really kind and friendly person. She was also really cute.

I wanted to ask for her number, but instead we traded emails. I was teaching programming classes in Boston at the time, and she expressed a strong interest in coming and asked me to let her know when the schedule was finalized.

After that we corresponded by email a bit. Even through email she was funny and cheerful. I really liked her and kept hoping she would show up to my classes, but unfortunately the schedules never worked out for her and the location of her college made it prohibitively difficult for her to get there.

We never saw each other again, and it became a one-off memory of a cute, friendly girl I met in the street.

Tonight I was looking through my email for something else and stumbled upon our 7-year-old conversation, and out of curiosity I looked her up to see where she was now.

Finding this was a real gut punch. This is painful, and I only met her once, for a few minutes.

I am so sorry.

Sabrina participated in an undergraduate research program in biology and spent a summer as a member of our lab. I know I speak for all of us there when I say how sorry we are to hear of her passing. I remember a kind person who smiled often, loved butterflies and animals in general. 

There is one memory in particular I'd like to share. We went out to lunch to celebrate Sabrina's scientific accomplishments and selected Shake Shack (a tradition for our lab). There weren't any good vegetarian options, so Sabrina ended up eating a hot dog bun while the rest of us scarfed down burgers. We felt badly, especially since it was supposed to be *her* lunch, so we offered to take her someplace else. Sabrina smiled, politely refused and said "I'm just happy that all of us are together."

I think all of us who knew Sabrina are better for having met her.

Hi.  I met Sabrina once on Halloween in Hoboken and she was an absolute delight.  Needless to say, I did not know her well at all, but I want you all to know how much she changed me as a person just from that brief encounter.  I am so sorry this happened.  I am fairly inconsequential finding out a year later and with only a short amount of text interactions with Sabrina, but I am astoundingly touched just having gotten to spend that amount of time with her.

I am thinking of all of you, if only in the abstract.

Sabrina's beautiful essence profoundly touched my life. While her physical presence is at peace, her kind spirit and dedication to improving lives through evidence-based research lives on. 

Sabrina - thank you for inspiring me to carry on your torch of compassion, curiosity, adventure, resilience, and positive influence. 

Forever in my thoughts and heart. 

With love, admiration and support to the Ferrara family. 

Ellen Guggenheim 

Connie.....
Omg so sad. May God give you and your family strength. 
Your old PC 82’ Alum,
Cassie Silletti

I am so saddened to hear of the loss of sweet Sabrina. I didn’t know Sabrina for a long time but felt like I knew her for years.  She was a light of brightness at United TaeKwonDo and now learning more about her through the beautiful obituary I wish I knew she was suffering so I could have reached out and possibly helped. 

I will pray for her and her family in this difficult time.  



We are so sorry for your terrible loss. Our deepest sympathies.
Sincerely,
Caryn & Tim Coville

John, Connie and JT....

There are no words that I can say to express my condolences on the loss of beautiful Sabrina.

I will always remember her simple smile.  

Whether she was jogging past our house or stopping to say Hi, she always had a smile on her face.

That smile was the window to a kind, gentle soul.  Heaven is a better place now that she is there.

The kindness she showed to our little girl Vivienne when we first moved onto Woodland CT will never be forgotten.

We will miss her.

May you find comfort in the memories of your wonderful daughter and sister.

Anything you guys need... we are there.  Please just ask.

Steve (for the Levine family)



I am so sorry for your loss.
My thoughts are with you and your family
Marion and Glenn laga

PART VI - J.T. to Sabrina eulogy

You were RELENTLESS. Remember when we argued for a whole hour over the meaning of that one word? To me, it was an angry word, one that meant you would take any path to personal gains. To you it was something different. It was a commitment to never backing down. It was the pursuit of excellence in any and every endeavor, a promise to fight your hardest, always and in every way. For every single inch. Because “life is just a game of inches and the inches we need are everywhere around us.” You fought so hard. Through the pain you never stopped showing me your infinite love. I will never stop loving you. None of us will. We will “always consider the end to be too soon, even though in life, more than anything else, quality should be more important than quantity.”

You were my sista.

Love,
brotha


PART V - J.T. to Sabrina eulogy

You were infinitely creative. It flowed continually through your being, leaking out into everything you did. Always equipped with your pen as your weapon, you would defeat any boring restaurant napkin, convenience store receipt, or standard white page corner with an intricate new design. In those rare times when you were left without your pen, you would squeeze juice from berries until it covered your fingers and you would paint with it. Frequently my face was your canvas. You transformed the space around you to be an extension of what was endlessly circling around in your head. Your coffee table was a canvas, a discarded curbside item was an opportunity to design a new piece of furniture. You would send me pictures stating “Look what I found!”, which I usually thought was just junk. But nonetheless, I’d arrive at your apartment a few weeks later to find a beautiful new piece of art integrated into your unique space. Everything had inherent beauty to you. You saw the opportunity for a new project, and your touch would bring out its beauty. This gift extended to anyone who was lucky enough to be around you. You showed all of us how specially unique we are, how much more we have to offer, how we can be so much more than we see in ourselves.

PART IV - J.T. to Sabrina eulogy

You were a perfectionist. For you, perfection wasn’t about the product, it was about the process. It was a trait that stemmed from your deeply rooted belief that you could always be a little bit better than you currently were. For you “‘The best’ is a level that no one holds and everyone contributes to. It is defined by the final product which is merely an output of constant process”.

I’ve never known anyone else so driven. You never met a challenge you didn’t embrace. You didn’t follow dreams, you hunted goals. You chased constancy of growth, and you knew that when you wanted something, all the universe would conspire to help you achieve it. You set a goal for yourself to run the world in ten years. All 24,864 miles of it. But it wasn’t enough for you to just do it yourself. It was about moving others forward as well. No matter what anyone was running for, you could all run together with a common goal. It was the same in everything you did. You measured the extent of your success not by personal achievement alone, but by how much you moved others towards their goals.


PART III - J.T. to Sabrina eulogy

You were an explorer. When I left for my semester abroad, I was anxious, nervous, uncertain of myself and what would lie ahead. I was inspired by your travels, and I wanted to experience the world the way you told stories of it. I wanted to be intertwined in others’ stories the way I knew you were intertwined in so many. The way you trusted strangers to take you to climb a mountain, or made a few new friends to explore an island. I took a hike with Grizzly to clear my mind, because I knew you would do the same. When I came back, still uncertain of what I was I was trying to find, I found a sticky note from you with a quote that captured exactly what I was searching for. You wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”. I knew what to do, even though I didn’t know where I was going. I simply needed to follow the light in your eyes, which was so bright. Whenever I was lost or lonely, I could channel the love and energy you shared with me and share it with others, and I would be able to keep going.

You were so strong. The time we were talking about Free Solo, we were both inspired by Alex Honnold’s outlook on what living was about. He said “[Life] is about being a warrior. This is your path and you will pursue it with excellence. You face fear, because your goal demands it. That is the … warrior spirit”. You had the warrior spirit sista. It was your warrior spirit that took you through every challenge you faced, through every inch of every Spartan race you competed in. You are the only person I know who got excited at the thought of running a 24-hour Spartan race, with no sleep, working as a team to persevere through the obstacles. That was who you were. Life wasn’t about resting for you, it was about doing.


PART II - J.T. to Sabrina eulogy

You were a dreamer. We were on a walk one day and you passed a new idea by me from your endless collection of creative thoughts. You wanted to volunteer at the library to run a summer program for kids. To do what? To break the Guinness World Records for world’s largest Rube Goldberg machine. You believed with all your heart that a group of kids could accomplish this. We spent the rest of the walk brainstorming what it would look like, where it would go, and how it would work. You were inspired by other dreamers too. Like the Wright brothers, who “decided to make themselves a flying machine. Everyone shouted – ‘You fools! You idiots! What's your problem?’ ‘That'll never work because plywood weighs more than air!’ To which the Wright brothers responded, ‘No! It doesn't.’ The Wright brothers were dreamers.” Or Steven Colbert, one of your favorite comedians who would make you cry with laughter, when he joked about constantly bending over to pick vegetables “if we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we make the earth waist high? Come on! Where is the funding?”.



Dear sista, - PART I - J.T. to Sabrina eulogy

You were brilliant. You pursued every opportunity for knowledge you could. You learned from everyone and everything. Each experience was an opportunity for growth. You knew that there were no limits to growth. In mind, in body, in soul, you strove to improve every single day. You were a patient teacher. You gave me biology lessons on every walk. You took your role at the library with such passion. You would teach the girls you babysat for everything you could and they would say “I want to be just like Sabrinie when I grow up”.

You were endlessly curious. Simple answers weren’t enough for you. You needed to know why, how, and what for. You analyzed the method behind every experiment, the logic leading to every conclusion, the moral fabric underlying every piece of advice. You drilled into the very tool we used to express our thoughts, questioning the meaning of words; did we ever figure out the difference between ability and capability? At every step, you listened and listened and listened. Without judgement, only with more questions. You taught me how to listen, without judgement, without assumptions, only with curiosity.

You saw the world differently. One day you sent me a picture of an otherwise round green leaf from a bush; except that the majority of it was crusted in white and speckled in black dots of mold. You simply captioned it “A beautiful leaf for you”. You saw the beauty where others passed it by, especially in people, especially in me. You supported others, you inspired others, you loved others.


To know Sabrina was to love her. I want to say so many things but I am afraid the tears of sadness would overwhelm me and bring me to my knees sobbing.

We pray that Sabrina has found peace and that one day, we can hold her in our arms and we will be united as a family in heaven.
For now we have so many beautiful memories of her and the love and support of all our dear family and friends who are here helping us through this time of agonizing sorrow. Thank you everyone for being here for us, we are all heartbroken. On behalf of Connie, J.T. and myself. THANK YOU.

For now, I am going to close my eyes, feel her in my heart and hold on tight to the memories of my little girl, Sabrina. - She was a little over one year old, just learning to walk, I just had knee surgery and would lie on the couch watching cartoons with her. When I needed to get up, she would run across the room or maybe better described as a wobble - only as you can picture a toddler doing. She would carry my crutches back to me - which were twice her size, and she would say - here Daddy, here are your crutches, let’s go play.  -- John Ferrara (as a thank you to all family and friends attending Sabrina's services)


Sabrina was a beautiful, sweet and loving person. She was such a wonderful daughter. Sabrina suffered from mental illness for many years. I always said mental illness is an invisible disease. You don’t see it, so it’s hard to understand, but it’s real and painful. It requires a lot of support. You may not have known Sabrina’s struggles or their degree, but you were all an integral part of supporting Sabrina. Through your conversations, smiles, everyday interactions, you gave John, JT and me the strength, joy, hope and love we needed to take care of Sabrina.

Sabrina was such a caring and thankful person. Even through her hardship and tears she would say Thank you. Thank you Daddy, Thank you J.T., Thank you Mommy. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

As a legacy to her we ask everyone to remember to SMILE and say THANK YOU once a day to someone because it can make a difference to someone in a way you may not realize. 

-- Connie Ferrara (as a thank you to all family & friends attending Sabrina's services)


To the Ferrara family,

We would like to express our deepest condolences for the passing away of your daughter and sister Sabrina, who we had the opportunity to meet when she did her internship with us at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. 

We remember Sabrina as a very kind person, full of energy and enthusiasm. She joined our group at a time when we were adjusting to rearing over 20 different species of exotic butterflies and she contributed greatly to our team by organizing our insectaries and research data records with a system and materials that we still use two years later. She wasn’t afraid to take on a difficult project and was always very determined and driven in the pursuit of her dreams. 

In this painful moment there are few words that can provide comfort but we would like you to know that Sabrina is in our thoughts and we remember her with much affection.

Sincerely,
Owen, Carolina, Kris and the Gamboa Heliconius Research Team


Thoughts & Prayers out to the Ferrara Family.  We are so sorry for your loss.

Sincerely,
Fred, Barbara, Corinne & Kyle Stackpole
River Vale, NJ

My dearest Sabi — my cat and dog caregiver — my babysitter — my plant waterer — the beautiful girl down the street who was such an example to my growing children  — whipped cream games with the kids and neighbors children — the babysitter who always washed all the dinner dishes before successfully putting evan and Olivia to bed BEFORE we got home —-the young woman who called me for references every time she needed a good word said about her —-as recently as few weeks ago we spoke and I gave a reference and communicated her good judgement when she thought she was in danger while out running —- how responsible she was the night of the fire and being sure to get herself and the dog to safety — the grown up woman who ran by the house always with a smile and a wave !  Many wonderful things will be communicated over the next few days about you and your family will love you forever — you will be missed - “Mrs. Jones “ ( you can call me Karen ) 

May God Bless Sabrina now in heaven and her wonderful family. No words can offer you solace, but may your many beautiful memories help you through the toughest of times.   

OBITUARIO

Sabrina Louise Ferrara

17 julio, 1992 – 29 septiembre, 2019

Becker Funeral Home

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