Deborah J. (‘Misty’) Gerner

My dear friend Deborah J. Gerner (also known as ‘Misty’) died yesterday. She’d sustained a hard battle against increasingly invasive forms of cancer for the past eleven years.
She was brave, determined, fair-minded, and a passionate advocate for justice and human equality.
I had known Misty, vaguely, for many years. Then in 2002 we worked together on When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel, a big Quaker book on Israel and Palestine. She was a Light, a peacemaker, and a very spiritual person. At hard times in our work– of which there were more than a few– she was a steady and supportive presence, gently urging us all to find the truth that is greater than any one of us is.
She was a member of Oread Friends Meeting there in Lawrence, Kansas.
I was with Misty and her spouse, Phil Schrodt, in Kansas last month when they were making some very hard end-of-life decisions. I’ve spent the past weeks saying goodbye to her in one way and another.
Kansas University, where she was a professor of political science, put out this news release about her passing. It tells a lot about her life and her many professional accomplishments.
Misty was 50 years old. Life seems miserably unfair sometimes. However, she leaves behind her a very rich legacy of knowledge and caring that will be with the world forever.
I’m writing this in an airport. I’m headed for Europe. I’ve been thinking such a lot about Phil, who’s been caring for her in the most loving and personal way in their beautiful home on a wooded hillside there, ever since they shifted from hospitals to “hospice” care. I know he has a strong network of friends there… Let’s send our comforting thoughts to them all.