ABOUT CHELSEA MORRISON
Chelsea Morrison was a wonderful, sweet girl who was killed in a traffic accident on the Taconic State Parkway in January 2000.  You can get to know her through her photos on the website and by reading some of the items included here.   If you would like to help the Foundation dedicated to her memory, please click here.


Eulogy at Chelsea's Funeral,
Written and Delivered by Cam Hardy

I am deeply honored to speak about Chelsea. I found myself getting a bit overwhelmed initially, at the thought of representing so may people who were touched by her. All of us here today know the exuberance and generosity of Chelsea's spirit. I ask you to take a moment to look around you, holding in your mind that each one of us had the privilege of seeing Chelsea's beautiful eyes sparkle, her big smile that asked you to smile back.

This is what we now know of Chelsea: her sparkle, her beauty, her smile are in and amongst and surrounding all of us. The comfort in remembering this, in knowing this, gives me the strength to express my love, which is our love for Chelsea.

I find this expression in two images: a snow angel and a rainbow.

I went to bed on Monday night, as I'm sure we all did, exhausted, in a daze, almost afraid for the morning to come - for further waves of grief to catch up with me again. When I awoke yesterday morning, I sensed the quiet of the snowfall before I saw it. When I looked out upon it, I was both at peace and captivated by a spontaneous image of Chelsea bounding our of her dorm and onto the quad.

I saw her falling backward in a white spray, and moving her arms and legs up and down to make a snow angel. This was an imagined moment, but also one which I know was very much a part of Chelsea's experience of surrendering herself to revelry. It is one of the great gifts that Chelsea gave to us by example: to release ourselves from struggle by jumping into life, wrestling with it, reveling in it. She questioned absolute rules for living when they left no time for play. As her advisor, I challenged her to focus on academic work and her responsibilities - which she did; she challenged me in my occasional adult uptightness to loosen up a bit.

Gently and deliberately, she invoked me to make a snow angel, to let a snowflake fall on my eyelashes and melt on my tongue - and I did. She, through her own struggles and pain, released herself to live and love.

On Monday, we held a voluntary memorial service at school. It came as no surprise to me that the Chapel was full. The service was a wonderful and very healing opportunity for us to share our thoughts and remembrances of Chelsea. She was remembered by several students for being the first to reach out to them when they came to campus as a new student. She was remembered for her unencumbered style of dress, her ability to pull off her outfits because of her spirit. Chelsea was remembered as a peacemaker, who intervened when others were not at peace and worked toward reconciliation first. She was remembered as a source of happiness, as a source of strength, as a source of truth and love. I was one of many who was privileged to know her deep love - for which there are no words - for her mother, Jody, her father, Carlos, and her brother, Tommy. She was remembered by those who couldn't even speak for themselves - our children. We remembered for them how Chelsea included our children in her life. She played along with them and in equal measure to what she offered her many friends she offered our children true affection and care. They, in their 2-5 year old ways, returned that authentic affection for her.

A final remembrance was by a student who said that she did not even know Chelsea well. I'm not sure I can recount as well as she, but it is one which I share, for we both were with Chelsea on Halloween. The school offered for students to sign up to trick-or-treat with faculty children as long as they dress up. Chelsea showed up as a rainbow, with every color represented, from head to toe, in some article of clothing or another. The trouble was that none of us knew what she was - not even our children - whose imagination she could so brilliantly capture. She kept asking, "Guess what I am, guess what I am!" and no one could guess. So finally she got down on her back and then arched into a backbend and said, "See, I'm a rainbow!"

And indeed Chelsea was and is a rainbow, for a rainbow emerges from darkness and turbulence into light and brilliant color. It arches all over us in its beauty and wonder. It invokes us boldly, it dares us in its splendor to be playful, to be joyful, to emerge from our darkness in light and love.

Where does it end?

We offer our thanks, Chelsea, to your family and to God for the many gifts that you brought to us. Chelsea, your spirit is arching over us like a rainbow and surrounding us in peace, like the snow that you used to make angels.