Remembering Gena by Rosalie Malter 6/8/12 When Gena passed away last week at age 86, I lost a close friend and meditation buddy. Her health deteriorated rapidly and it was time for her to leave what she called her “pain body.” She had skin cancer on her face and chest. Even though the doctor assured her that most people don’t die of skin cancer, that cancer ate more than half her face, despite repeated surgeries and radiation. She tried treating it with alternative methods for about a year, but nothing worked. Because it was so aggressive, her friends encouraged her to try radiation. However, the radiation zapped her energy and her immune system. She didn’t want to get up or eat so just wasted away. She got a staph infection that became systemic and that was what finally killed her. I wanted to visit her one more time before she left, but the family and hospice wouldn’t allow visitors because of the danger of spreading the staph to visitors. She was able to stay at home till the end, surrounded by family and wonderful works of art, many of which she created. But there was so much more to this wonderful woman than her illness. She was an artist, teacher, singer, clown and long-time meditator. She wrote her autobiography a few years ago. She had spent her life in a quest for knowledge, beauty and spiritual connection. She had a great sense of humor and actually worked as a professional clown for a few years with Ringling Bros. Circus. As a very talented portrait artist, she did many paintings of clowns. She also painted portraits at Knott’s Berry Farm and Disneyland. I have one of her paintings, of an angel with dolphins, which I treasure. She said the face of the angel was based on a co-worker, but I think it’s a self portrait. She also loved teaching art to elementary school children, doing that as a volunteer in her retirement years. She had a beautiful singing voice and sang for years with the Verde Valley Voices. The last performance she was in with the group was dedicated to her. She also enjoyed singing with a kirtan group in Sedona and would go every Sunday. Kirtan is yoga-style chanting of mantras. She was a multi-cultural, spiritual person, interested in Yoga, Buddhism, Native American spirituality (especially Hopi) as well as Christianity. She was also in a Crystal Skulls group. Crystal skulls are ancient artifacts said to go back to Atlantis. They are made of crystal in the shape of a human skull. There are said to be 12 large ones, the size of human heads, perfectly formed by unknown means that exist in the world today. One or more are in Sedona. Because crystals can be programmed, they are thought to be able to communicate with each other sort of like the computers of today. They have been studied extensively and the group discusses this research. Gena was a 40-year survivor of breast cancer, before she developed skin cancer. She was also an adventurer, even into her later years. A few years ago she went with a spiritual group to Peru. She was the oldest in the group and others were worried about her at that high altitude, but she did fine. When she visited Macchu Picchu she walked through an “inter-dimensional doorway” where she had an enlightenment experience of great light and love. The last painting she created was of this experience. I met Gena when we first moved to Cottonwood. She was in a meditation group that met weekly. One of the Cottonwood yoga teachers introduced me to the group, and we met for many years. Eventually, due to attrition, the group diminished to just Gena and me and occasionally another person or two. At that point I was ready to end the group, but Gena enjoyed it so much I didn’t have the heart to tell her. She was a very special meditator. She had been to India and followed a guru for years. She had enlightenment experiences that left her in such an elevated state of consciousness that she was in a constant state of bliss and joy. So it was a joy to be around her. Into her eighties, I marveled how she could sit in lotus position and not move for 45 minutes. She could easily transcend her physical body and get into blissful existence, reluctant to come back. Even being old and sick, she always had a playful, joyful attitude and never missed the beauty of life. She appreciated every sunset and rainbow with an artist’s eye. Up till the last few weeks of her life when she was in a lot of pain, she always had a cheerful viewpoint and made light of her personal appearance (her face had been disfigured by the cancer and surgeries). The world has now lost a very special person. I prefer to remember her as she was before her illness, full of spirit and joy. She will have a celebration of her life this Sunday. Many in our community will pay tribute to her and miss her greatly. Above is Gena’s painting of an angel and dolphins. Is this a self-portrait of Gena?