Hills and Valleys

Hello, All. I finally found 1) time, and 2) a computer. I'm in Kodaikanal, which is in the Western Ghats mountains, I believe. I think the elevation is about 6,000 feet here, and it's magical. Kodai ("KO-dee") is where my mother was born and where she and her siblings attended boarding school - at a Lutheran parochial school for missionary kids on a compound called "Loch End" because it was originally built by Scottish missionaries. Across the street is the private high school - originally "Highclerc" - where Mom's siblings went to school. It's now the prestigious Kodaikanal International School.

I arrived here on Friday at 2:00 a.m., after a magical train ride which began at dusk in Nagercoil. At 5:20 a.m. I was awakened by a call from Luther Seminary's campus pastor, who informed me that my friend Anna had killed herself. She had been struggling mightily with bipolar disorder, and many of us had struggled mightily to help her. It's been hard to grieve here alone, especially with a very full schedule (maybe that's for the best?). Some of you know that I have bipolar disorder and that depression and anxiety essentially crippled me for many years, so I saw myself in Anna, who's problems hit with a vengeance, as did mine, just as she began her first full-time church music job. Anna had finished the Master of Sacred Music program last year, and that's how we met. So my joy and excitement about being in Kodai is mixed with sadness, especially as I will miss both her service at St. David's Episcopal Parish and a memorial service at the seminary.



"The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God."
(Book of Wisdom, Apocrypha)

+ Anna Marie Laino +
November 12, 1983 -
February 5, 2009