Many thanks to everyone who attended Ella's memorial service, or sent their condolences.
The program for the service is available here.
Here are the texts of (most of) the speaker's remarks:
Denise Brown, director of the Montclair High School Dance Company where Ella danced all through High School, dedicated this year's performance to Ella - see the dedication in the program.
The Macalester Theatre and Dance Department Spring Concert Program also dedicated the performance to Ella, and donated proceeds to her fund.
You could tell Ella was a dancer. She had a poise and grace about her, not only physically, but interpersonally. She navigated even the most outrageous of situations in our windowless, sub-basement lab with a calm and ease that not one of the rest of us possess. She got her point across gently, she was endlessly encouraging, always squarely in our corner, just a real source of light we all looked forward to seeing when we came into work.
I could go on with a litany of Ella superlatives, but sometimes I think things are best explained by stories, so I have just a short one that I think captures the kind of girl Ella was.
Ella and I always spent our valuable lab time working hard… on sending each other online shopping links. Just last Thursday, she sent me one from the other room with the note, "Oh my god, I have to show you the coolest thing. Don't you really like this?" I clicked on the link and saw this sort of hanging wall garden type contraption. And it was just… it was ugly as SIN. I burst out laughing, turned the computer to our friend Aviva, who politely responded with a simple, "Oh, dear." Ella came prancing into our room to see our reaction and her little face fell for a millisecond when we were teasing her about how hideous it was. But then her eyes lit up and she squared her shoulders and announced, "But you can grow BASIL in it, and I'm gonna get it!" And her excitement was so adorable and infectious.
And, that's just exactly who Ella was. The kind of person who could see potential in things, and in people, even when things got ugly. We miss her every day.