I'm not sure how it happens, the string of odds that plays out that I should have so many people around me pass away. My good friend, Mel, says it's because I have surrounded myself with people who love life and long to live it to the fullest, that passions that deep sometimes bear heavy burdens, and I suppose that's the best answer I could possibly come up with to explain the rash of deaths I've known in my life in just 25 years.
At any rate, I made my daily rounds today to find another familiar face among the odds. I didn't know Andrea all too well, a handful of memorable and great conversations in the few years that we happened to run about the same circles of Muncie, IN. A brief excerpt from NeilGorman.com about her heart, and a quick request:
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To: Neil Gorman
Subject: A simple request for a friend that would mean a lot.
Hey, all, I know this is unorthodox, but I was hoping people could help. A good friend of mine, Andrea Scamihorn, passed away yesterday in Santiago, Chile. She was 25 years old.
http://www.myspace.com/andreasaysrevolt
I couldn’t possibly overstate how much she meant to myself and other people who knew her. In the activist circles we had both been involved in for almost a decade, she was a bit of a living legend, as she started doing anti-racist grassroots organizing in rural Indiana at a time when most people considered it to be an extremely dangerous place to stand up to white supremacist movements. But she not only endured, but lead and was part of dozens of successful campaigns over the years.
She had moved to Santiago about a year and a half or so ago and considered it her adopted home. She was a few days away from returning when a carbon monoxide leak from a faulty heater took her life.
The U.S. embassy has told her mother that it will be $4000 to move her body back to the US, money her family doesn’t have, let alone for a funeral when her body is returned. We’re trying to see if we can raise this money for her, so every little bit counts. If you can donate just $5, $10, $25, or whatever you can, please do. I can’t imagine being in the position her mother is in, and I’ve put in $200 myself to help her out.
The email address you can send money to is:
debbeehaskell@hotmail.com
A Facebook Event to help raise money has been set up here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106687950602
Thank you so much