We lost a beautiful light and force on this planet last week.  Adelaide Finkbine Hixon was 101 when she passed and was nothing short of the Grande Dame of my Love League.  Since I was eleven years old, she has been a source of wisdom, laughter and a swift kick in the pants when I needed one.  She was an extraordinary philanthropist, who was passionate about early childhood education.  Adelaide's list of philanthropic credits is miles long, but I love the twinkle in her eye behind the writing program she started with her husband Alec at CalTech to help scientists convey their ideas to the rest of us folk.

In the photo above, as we waited for a play to begin about 4 years ago, she had just uttered this hilarious sentence "Opera is the television of the 1880's!"  

Here she is in her one and only visit when she came to my new home for lunch.  I had only very recently gotten settled here, but she was so excited for me she wanted to come as soon as I would have her.  She was my champion.

We shared a passion for flowers and butterflies.  I always brought flowers which she would inspect in great detail ("Is this from your garden?"  "What's this one here?) and deeply inhale their aroma as if she were ingesting their deliciousness. Whenever possible I would bring her a special butterfly find too.  This is one of the wind-up butterflies propelled by a tightly wound rubberband.  It delighted her so when it flew up high and then landed on her blanket.  I couldn't help snap a photo of its synchronistic lavender butterflied landing strip!

This podcast is a love letter to Adelaide with excerpts from Supehero of Love: Heal Your Broken Heart & Then Go Save the World that she inspired.

With love from Bridget...