Leesa Streifler has been teaching painting at the UofR since I was an undergrad in the 80s. I didn't know here then and didn't really know her well until I started here in 1999 but after that we became good friends. She was the first, and one of the few, to reach out and invite me to her studio to talk art and possibly work together. I posed for some photos with her just prior to my surgery in 2001 and she was extremely supportive of my art, my health, and my family. When she adopted Daniel and he was only three weeks younger than William, we began socializing even more, talking like parents talk, not just like friends or like colleagues (parents reach into something deeper, perhaps due to the need to fill time as the kids do kid stuff). She's moving to Winnipeg so I'll likely see her now and then, but her presence at the university and as part of that place being a home to me will be missed.
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