Mineda Joye Mccleave

Mineda Joye McCleave, she whose beautiful soul usually shone brightly through a troubled mind during her valiant and lifelong struggle for mental and physical health, died early Friday morning, May 6, 2011, at Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House in Bettendorf, Iowa. She died peacefully of a late-diagnosed and aggressive lung/lymph node cancer. In accordance with her expressed wishes, Mineda has been cremated. She requests that no memorial services be held. If you would like to honor her memory, a donation to the local chapter of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill would be appreciated. Online condolences may be made at www.rungemortuary.com.

A Christmas gift to her extended family, Mineda was born on December 24, 1937, in Davenport, Iowa, where she lived her entire life. She was descended from the long line of German-Irish settlers of the city, including the Schicks, Schriefers, and McCleaves, and proudly proclaimed herself to be a West End street kid.

Her parents, Lawrence R. and Phyllis (Schick) McCleave, preceded her in death as did an older brother, Rolland. Her immediate survivors are four siblings and their families: sisters, Kathleen McCleave (Madison, WI), Karen (McCleave) and Harry Lamb (Davenport), and Michele (McCleave) and Thomas Mahaffey (Cassopolis, MI); and brother, Terrance and Melba McCleave (Lehigh Acres, FL). She is also survived by several generations of nieces, nephews, cousins, and one uncle, Vernon Schick (Pilot Hill, CA).

As sweet Mineda leaves this plane and continues her journey elsewhere, there are a few things her family would like to acknowledge and record to mark her stay here. In her youth, Mineda was a fearsome and gifted athlete, excelling in several sports, including track and field where she held several state records for a time; fast-pitch softball which she often played without a glove if her games coincided with those of a younger sister she allowed to use the one glove they owned between them; and basketball where she regularly won one-on-one, playground pickup games against a young man who went on to become the star center of one of old Davenport High School’s state championship boys’ teams.

Even as Mineda aged and became more and more physically confined to her rooms by several agoraphobia and social anxiety attacks, her inquiring and amazingly retentive mind soared and began to bring the world to her. For decades, she maintained an extensive global correspondence and information exchange with noted scholars, professors, and other intelligentsia on several continents. Her contributions to their thinking and research have been footnoted in their various publications, particularly in the areas of Western mysticism, near-death experiences, Kundalini, comparative religions, and like philosophical research. The names in her address book include Gopi Krishna, Paul Brunton, Manley P. Hall, Kenneth Ring, Marcus Bach, Jocelyn Godwin, John White and Victor Mair, to name a few. Please google them to understand the breadth of her contacts and extent of her influence in this world.

Though her mental issues prevented much gainful employment outside the home during her life, Mineda provided a lifetime of service as a hands-on caregiver for her siblings, parents, grandfather, aunts, and various friends. She who enabled end of life transitions for so many, many others was herself helped immensely at the end by the tender compassion of Hospice, receiving service from Hospice Compassus and the Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House in Bettendorf. How apt that Mineda, who was especially bothered by bright light, accomplished her passing in a spacious room with multiple views of a springtime garden with paths lined with double white narcissus and daffodils. The family acknowledges the loving support and compassionate embrace of our sister and her family members. Our profound wish is that every person and every family could be similarly comforted during the death experience of loved ones.

Finally, we must note that Mineda and her mother shared a special bond during their lifetimes that we fully expect will be renewed in death. Spring is the time of rebirth, renewal, new life. Go in peace, dearest sister, teacher, mentor, friend.