It was so characteristic of publisher Linda Klitch that one of her last wishes – expressed to family, friends and Peace Arch News colleagues – was that everyone should become active blood donors.
Such a call to action – amplified prior to her death Monday as she feared she was using up too much of the province’s precious stock – is not surprising to those who had come to know her well over the years. Her response to the stresses and crises we all face in everyday life was always pro-active and practical.
“What can we do?” she would ask of the people who worked with her, whether it was a matter of putting out a newspaper or helping raise funds for one of her many worthy causes in the community. “What should we be doing?”
Klitch was not one to leap without looking. She would consider options carefully, but when a decision had to be made, she would back it up with unswerving, unstinting support.
If people needed help, or just a kind word, she would find a way and make the time to do it. From the time she first came to the Semiahmoo Peninsula, it was clear her word was a bond and that she was the most valuable of all allies – a reliable one.
But Klitch would be the first to say she was only one of many committed to making a meaningful difference in the community. She would insist that others have done more.
Her admiration for those who help others, whether through their day-to-day work, volunteerism or spare-time efforts, was manifest in the recognition they were given in our pages.
To those who mourn her now, she would say there is plenty of work still to be done and good people who need our help. And the best way to remember her is to honour the traditions of hard work and selflessness that she believed in.
Just as Klitch recognized that our work in this life is about more than business, we should seize the opportunity to volunteer, to donate, to create and participate.
There are many ways we can help, many organizations, service clubs and charities devoted to the well-being of our citizens. We should each, in our own way, become involved in building our own community, to strive to find ways to contribute rather than simply consume.
The kind of caring and conscientiousness that characterized Linda Klitch should be her true legacy to the community she called home.