Sandy Callier, friend
Peg was a treasured friend for many; I feel very privileged to have been one of them. She embodied strength and grace: a model for how to live life fully and thoughtfully, even—maybe especially- while dying.
Our friendship began initially as an outgrowth of Jon’s (my husband) long friendship with Philip. And despite the challenges of distance and time, our own friendship strengthened as we visited each other's homes, celebrating family milestones and holidays and vacationing together, including memorable canoe trips. We discovered a lot of common ground as we discussed family life, careers and our individual interests and passions. Peg generously shared her knowledge and enthusiasm for Canadian authors, artists and history, the vibrant city life of Toronto and especially the vast natural beauty of her homeland and her work to preserve it. And, just as generously, she took genuine interest in my take on American life and culture and my work in international health and development.
We spent other time together as part of the “Landon group’s “gatherings [O’s] in Vermont and DC, and recent trips to Tuscany, the Yucatan and Newfoundland. I especially value the time Peg and I spent on our own exploring Florence and hiking in Cinque Terre. She was an ideal travel companion, equally able to enjoy roughing it in a very modest pension and splurging on a great meal or a stay in a Tuscan villa.
It turns out that 3+ decades of friendship isn’t enough. I will miss Peg deeply. In one of her last communications with me, she herself offered a source of comfort for the loss we must now endure. Peg’s note encouraged me to read the works of Richard Wagamese, an Ojibwe writer, and she quoted the following lines by him, which I find both apt and consoling. Peg definitively crafted her own remarkable story.
“All that we are is story. From the moment we are born to the time we continue on our spirit journey, we are involved in the creation of the story of our time here. It is what we arrive with. It is all we leave behind. We are not the things we accumulate. We are not the things we deem important. We are story. All of us. What comes to matter then is the creation of the best possible story we can while we’re here; you , me, us, together. We can do that and when we take the time to share those stories with each other, we get bigger inside, we see each other, we recognize our kinship – we change the world, one story at a time.” - Richard Wagamese