Linda Anne Davies was born on July 14, 1949, in Jacksonville, Florida, the oldest of three children. She grew up near the St. John's River, which began for her a lifelong love of the water. She learned sewing from her mother, studied piano, and acquired an extensive knowledge of the world from her father, who, although not college educated, read widely, and imparted his love of learning to her.Linda graduated from Ribault High School in 1967, where she was the Senior Class Chaplain. She attended a local college, Swisher University, for three years, where her most memorable experience was wading through salt marshes around Jacksonville on field trips as part of her Biology major. She left school and home after three years to work and room with her best friend in a beachfront apartment for a year. Living and walking on the beach reinforced her love of the ocean.She transferred to the University of Florida, where she supported herself with part-time jobs while finishing her bachelor's degree. She switched her major first to History, then finally to Psychology. We met on Jan 7, 1972, in an Abnormal Psychology class. She was the most beautiful, sexy, and hardheaded woman I had ever met, and I head fell over heals for her. She was reluctant at first, but I persisted until she reciprocated my love, and we moved in together in May. She was already an accomplished seamstress - I remember her constructing and embroidering a peasant blouse as a gift for my brother's girl friend. I also remember wonderful times just sitting in companionship in our tiny apartment while she sewed something, usually by hand, which she greatly preferred over the sewing machine.We moved to Nashville, TN after graduation, where we married on March 24, 1973. She taught middle school at Peabody College Demonstration School until we moved to Atlanta in 1974 for my graduate studies. She taught in public schools there for two years, then our daughter Constance Marie was born on September 8, 1976. We moved back to Nashville after my doctorate, where she became a social worker in Child Protective Services, on the front lines of social dysfunctions. Although she was forced to remove children from homes for their safety once or twice, she spent most of her efforts on rehabilitation of parents to allow return of custody. She did her best under very difficult circumstances, visiting people in dangerous parts of town and managing a punishing caseload, and she did it all with grace and humor. We also made wonderful friends there with the Cain family, most of whom are here tonight, whose children became the brother and sisters that Connie never had.In 1981 Linda returned to college, and earned her Masters of Science in Social Work (MSSW) from the University of Tennessee in 1983. Shortly thereafter we moved back to Florida, to Orlando (the city of lakes), where we lived until we moved to Durham in 1998. In Orlando, she served successively as Director of the Parent Training Program, a private agency; Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Counselor; in Mental Health Services, first as Court Liaison, acting as expert witness in commitment hearings, then as manager of a child mental health unit; in adoptions as Home Study Social Worker with a private agency; and finally five years in Brain Injury Rehabilitation at Sand Lake Hospital.After being “unchurched” during our entire earlier relationship, we discovered Unitarian Universalism, and joined the First Unitarian Church of Orlando in 1987. She sang in the choir there for the entire time we were members, adding her lovely soprano to the music of the services. She also served on several committees and was a member of the Women's Group as well. We made many friends in that church family, and I hope that some of you are here today.It was during this time that she became interested in quilting, and you can see a sample of her work on the piano. She also undertook several ambitious sewing projects; the most challenging of which was the Senior Prom dress she made for Connie, from scratch. She poured herself into this project out of the deep well of love for our daughter, and Connie was the envy of her classmates at the Prom, wearing a one-off original dress.Another activity that Linda loved was gardening; she loved digging in the earth, and many times said she told me she would have liked to become an archeologist. She had a great interest in ancient and primitive cultures and read many works by Joseph Campbell and other anthropologists and archeologists. She also continued to enjoy history, especially that of England and the English-speaking people.Our daughter Connie graduated from High School in 1994, and was accepted by audition into the Musical Theatre program at an elite performing arts school, Webster Conservatory in St. Louis. Linda and I were then empty nesters, and had to relearn how to live together as just a couple, not as a child-centered family. After 15 years in Orlando, we wanted new jobs and new horizons, and moved to the Triangle in 1998, the year that Connie graduated from college.It was here that Linda got into her other passion, genealogy. She took a year's sabbatical from work and researched her family back to the middle ages, creating a family tree database. I am very happy to report that her niece, Melanie Davies, has agreed to take over and maintain and enhance this genealogy, so Linda's work on her family background will live on.Then, after a brief stint again as a Substance Abuse Counselor, she joined the Psychiatry Department of Duke Medical School as an outpatient psychotherapist, fulfilling a career-long dream to do this kind of work. She counseled and trained many people in life and self-coping skills, achieving great success with many of them. One of her patients, a young gay man whom she supported through his coming out process, sent her a letter a couple of months ago in which he told her that she had literally saved his life. Her impact on the world through her entire career was a positive and enhancing one with far greater impact than she, with her characteristic modesty, realized.After attending Eno River UU Fellowship for a while, we discovered this wonderful congregation (Unitarian Universalist). Those of you who are members know of all the things she did here, including singing in the choir, helping to make the alter quilt, and serving on the Program Committee, as well as being a loving and close friend to several of you.In October of 2004 she was diagnosed with bone cancer, and spent the last year and one-half fighting the disease, finally succumbing to it last Saturday, June 3, 2006. I was her primary caretaker during that time, and I was continually amazed at the courage, fortitude, and good humor she displayed under successive losses, first of her mobility, then her entire leg, and finally her life to metastatic lung cancer. I never once heard her complain or whine about her condition; she was more worried about Connie and me during this entire ordeal than she was about herself. In the last month of her life, I took her to Biltmore Mansion, which she had always wanted to see and we never quite had the time to do. Our daughter Connie, her life partner Heidi, and our new granddaughter Piper accompanied us to Atlantic City, where Linda was able to experience the beach and the ocean one last time. She enjoyed both thoroughly, even as she knew that her days were numbered. She also was utterly joyful that she was able to see and hold her only grandchild, whom she loved unconditionally from the first moment she saw her, and that love was reciprocated - Piper loved her back with the smiling delight and trust that only a baby can give.I am and will always be grateful that she loved me and stayed with me through 34 years of good times and bad. We had our share of marital problems as each of us grew and changed, but we worked hard on our relationship, not hesitating to seek couples counseling when we recognized the need, and resolving our differences to continue and build our love for each other. We discovered the secret to a successful marriage, which is that "We" must always be more important than "Me". The other reason that we did so well together is that we were always able to make each other laugh. She had a wonderful, quirky, droll sense of humor, which delighted me, and she actually liked my silly puns. We loved word play and gentle teasing, which made our life together a joy. I will never forget her.Hal Noyes
