“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.