Gina was a beautiful, talented and relentless advocate for PD awareness
and past president of YOPA (Young Onset Parkinson's Association). She
was killed while changing a tire on her way home onThanksgiving evening
& was hit byu a passing motorist.

“She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she
gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good,
you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. “

~Toni Morrison~

*Gina Riely is/was/always will be this kind of friend to me. I’d like to
share with you some of my fondest memories of Gina. We first met at the
Pan Forum in **Washington**, **DC**. My husband and I went to the room
of my friend James (tuneshaker). Stan was ready to play some blues harp
to James’ guitar pickin’. We were not at all prepared when a beautiful,
young woman entered the room and began to sing along. We were
thunderstruck to hear this little bitty girl belt out the standard “At
Last.”*

* *

*That song will always remind me of Gina. Man, she could rock you and
take you over the rainbow with that voice of hers. And she seemed to
have such a passion for “da blues-only later did I fully*

*understand that she had indeed paid her dues for admission into this
genre of music.*

* *

*Fast forward to our Shake, Rattle & Roll 2005 weekiend.*

*Gina arrived, every inch a diva, dressed and hated in red. She was,
everyone agreed, a knock-out. But more than that, she really cared about
the people she greeted and to whom she was introduced. She was the
epitome of grace and charm as she helped to serve lunch and drinks at
the home of Dr. Rick Weber. As the afternoon progressed and I became
more and more overcome with emotion as more people arrived for the
event, I (true to character) began to cry. Unable to tolerate anyone
raining on her (or my) parade, Gina began to sing show tunes. Soon she
had me singing at the top of my voice (which is funny because I can’t
carry a tune). We sang every show tune we could come up with and soon
collapsed in tears of laughter on the floor. *

* *

*The next day, at the actual event downtown, Gina was there bright and
early, looking like a million bucks in white and turquoise. She sang
with James, Pete Boot and Stan and everyone agreed that she had the
voice of an angel. After her set, she posed for “parkie pictures,”
bought a quilt made by Carol Post (with many pictures of PWP’s that she
had helped to gather and helped finance the construction of the quilt).*

* *

*Much later, after the days activities were over and the parkies had
gathered at the hotel to re-live the day, I asked Gina for a special
favor. Would she be willing to sing for my friend and blues
hall-of-famer, Patrick Hazell? (he had also played at my event but
arrived too late to hear Gina & the guys) She said yes immediately
although I could tell she was tired. We went up in the elevator to her
room, where she had all of her musical back-up on cd’s. She picked
several show tunes , closed her eyes and sang in a voice that dripped
with emotion and melted our hearts.*

* *

*I will never forget the look of admiration and pleasure that my
musician friend had on his face nor will I ever forget my thoughts as we
went downstairs for a tearful goodbye. The thought occurred to me-how
would Gina ever handle the almost inevitable effect of Parkinson’s
Disease on her voice?*

* *

*This is the ray of sunshine that I can find in this otherwise senseless
death. She died before she ever had to come to that point in her life
when that final indignity had to be endured.*

* *

*The last time that I saw Gina, she picked me up at **Newark** airport
and took me out to lunch at a beautiful, very elegant, quite charming
Irish restaurant. We had a wonderful time, taking all the time in the
world to discuss everything from politics to the politics of PD..*

* *

*When we finally got to her lovely little home, we both took naps before
she bundled me into a limo to take me to **Asbury Park** so that I could
attend Bob Benjamin’s Light of Day Concert.*

* *

*I spoke with Gina many times since that night and I never hesitated to
let her know how much she inspired me and meant to me.. I am so glad
that I let her know just how much her courage and conviction means to
me. Gina, my dear friend, you will always live on in my heart as my
memories of you will never dim..*

* *

*I love you, Giina. *

*Godspeed my friend.*

* *

* *

* *

* *


--
Joan Blessington Snyder   55/17
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www.calipso-pd.org
“Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.”
Chris in the Morning      Northern Exposure

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