another memoriam
Yesterday morning, bu Sri was out walking when she was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
Bu Sri was my gamelan grandma. She was in her late sixties, a short gnarled woman who loved to chuckle and make silly faces. She would play the gong-kempul, the only instrument where she could sit in a chair and spare her arthritic knees, and would pull faces and wink and mime drinking from a flask, never ceasing to crack me up while we were supposed to be rehearsing or even performing.
She worked at Voice of America. We kept talking about how we were going to get together for lunch, or as she put it, to climb trees, since that was what she claimed to love doing best on her lunch break.
Bu Sri adored K when I would bring her with me to latihan. When K wasn't with me, she would ask after her, and she would always send greetings to K in her emails. Bu Sri once emailed me a cute "Funniest Home Videos"-type .mpeg of cats doing silly tricks, for K to enjoy.
She thought very highly of me for being a law student. When the Terry Schiavo fiasco was going on, she sent me an email to solicit my "esteemed opinion" of what was happening.
She lived a very full life. She had taught Indonesian at the State and Defense Departments, in the USA and Germany and probably other places, and seemed to me to have been an awesome mom to her daughter Cita.
I called her to wish her happy birthday a couple months ago. She had trouble at first figuring out who I was - her memory had been getting a bit rusty lately, it seemed to me - but she was very touched and wanted to get together before the year was out.
I am very grateful to have had the privilege to have met her. Her happiness and love of the world inspired me never to shirk from wonderment at life. Brief though our contact was, she touched my life profoundly. I am sad that I will not have more opportunity to learn from her.
jonsinger posted a bit more on the gamelanmusic community.
Bu Sri was my gamelan grandma. She was in her late sixties, a short gnarled woman who loved to chuckle and make silly faces. She would play the gong-kempul, the only instrument where she could sit in a chair and spare her arthritic knees, and would pull faces and wink and mime drinking from a flask, never ceasing to crack me up while we were supposed to be rehearsing or even performing.
She worked at Voice of America. We kept talking about how we were going to get together for lunch, or as she put it, to climb trees, since that was what she claimed to love doing best on her lunch break.
Bu Sri adored K when I would bring her with me to latihan. When K wasn't with me, she would ask after her, and she would always send greetings to K in her emails. Bu Sri once emailed me a cute "Funniest Home Videos"-type .mpeg of cats doing silly tricks, for K to enjoy.
She thought very highly of me for being a law student. When the Terry Schiavo fiasco was going on, she sent me an email to solicit my "esteemed opinion" of what was happening.
She lived a very full life. She had taught Indonesian at the State and Defense Departments, in the USA and Germany and probably other places, and seemed to me to have been an awesome mom to her daughter Cita.
I called her to wish her happy birthday a couple months ago. She had trouble at first figuring out who I was - her memory had been getting a bit rusty lately, it seemed to me - but she was very touched and wanted to get together before the year was out.
I am very grateful to have had the privilege to have met her. Her happiness and love of the world inspired me never to shirk from wonderment at life. Brief though our contact was, she touched my life profoundly. I am sad that I will not have more opportunity to learn from her.
jonsinger posted a bit more on the gamelanmusic community.