Lover of Towns, Cities, and Nature Is Lost

Overnight, my mother, Stella Ruth Schwall Anderson, passed away from Alzheimer’s disease. Stella loved nature from the mighty mountains of the Alps and Rockies to every wildflower, rock and seed pod she ever found.  She loved places where you could walk looking in shop windows and sit and have dinner at a cafe on the sidewalk.

She was born in 1926, during Prohibition and the Great Depression and lived through the Great Recession. She ate beans & rice or eggs & grits in her family’s small cracker home that her father built in the low land near Mill Pond in Gainesville, FL. Her German-American father was a master carpenter building some of the University of Florida’s oldest buildings like the first Student Union and Fletcher Hall, and she had eleven older siblings.

She was the last living sibling from another era and was the sister-in-law of famous Gainesville resident Louis Penisi, who lived to 101 years, proprietor of Louis’ Lunch. Another Italian brother-in-law was Gainesville’s tailor. Several brothers fought in WWII.

She is a reminder that we want our cities walkable, with wide sidewalks, flowers and trees, cafes, shops and parks, all within walking distance of our home. Mom rarely had that living in the years of suburban sprawl, but she appreciated it… in Europe, or the rare times it happens in America.

I hope Stella helps us to be inspired to build walkable streets and cities. And to protect earth and its beautiful natural gifts. Please contribute to ending Alzheimer’s disease.