12/15/2024
Elizabeth Anne Sandvig Spafford died on Friday, December 6th, 2024, at 4:20pm. 87 years after she was born at 4:20am.
She was at her home of 60 years, surrounded by a lifetime of the art she and her husband, Michael Spafford, created and collected. Her illness, Acute Leukemia, manifested rapidly, but without a great deal of suffering. After a short time in hospital, we got her home on hospice, where she was very comfortable, surrounded by family, cats, and the things she loved. The kids made a lovely little Christmas tree, and we were able to care for her ourselves for the most part. Over the next 5 days, she initially refused visitors, which we overrode at the end. A very few of her close friends and the musician Gary Medeiros were then able to come. On her last day, her ukelele group, The Motherpluckers, were able to quickly assemble and played a rousing rendition of “Feliz Navidad” for her. We only had a couple days, a lovely little party, a few sweet moments. We wish that everyone who wanted to could’ve had one of those moments with her, but the time ran out. It really happened so fast. True to the title of her book “I Surprise Myself”, she did the unexpected and we could only try to keep up. In less than two weeks, she went from her usual feisty, creative, social self, to demanding directions to the exit. Both graciously and ferociously, she died as she lived, on her own terms. And then she crossed the river and was gone.
There was no one like her. We know many people will miss her, and Mike. Together they were a remarkable force, inspiring and indomitable. We will miss them every day.
We plan some sort of event in January. We’d like, also, to have an exhibition of her work in public. Please feel free to contact us.
