Judith Farrell

Judith was born in 1940 in the Panama Canal Zone, which was US territory at the time. In later life she had to laugh about having a birthplace "that no longer exists." Judith's father went to work on the canal as an engineer, and brought his intrepid bride to join him. Judith and her identical twin sister Jan were born prematurely and almost didn't survive. They lucked out that the army hospital there had a fancy new piece of equipment called an incubator. There's also a story about the doctor giving a least one of them a drop of whiskey to "get her system going."

They all returned to the US when the twins were 13 months old and settled on the north shore of Long Island. Judith vaguely remembered rationing during WWII. There was a dramatic incident involving many carefully collected sugar ration cards, for a birthday cake. Alone in the car with the cake for a few moments, the twins used the frosting to fingerpaint the interior of the vehicle. Judith vividly remembers hearing a bell tolling to announce the end of the war. The adults were all saying "Now things will go back to normal"—and she was curious and bit anxious to know what "Normal" was like. For Judith and her family (another sister and brother came along), postwar life was centered around the home and land our grandmother named Quiet Meadow. Judith excelled in school, was very active in Girl Scouts, sailed, and began to develop her skills in cooking and sewing. Occasionally, one of the family's goats would come to visit the school, adjacent to Quiet Meadow, and Judith would have to patiently take the goat back home.

Life got a bit crazy when she was 16 and the family moved down to Jessup, GA for our grandfather's job. There was a lot of culture shock but our mom made it through 2 years and then went off to Duke, along with her twin sister. She was smart in so many areas and originally was going to major in chemistry but then switched to English lit. She went to graduate school at Indiana, focusing on 18th-century British lit. She particularly studied Fanny Burney, a satirical writer who was also a courtier. Judith went on to do many things, but never forgot her work on Fanny Burney.

Judith was a born teacher and taught numerous courses at Indiana, and later in Kansas and Texas. She often taught writing, and helped scores of students find their voice and their inner genius. She believed in people, and once had a regular course declared an Honors course because she believed that if you tell students they're Honors students, they'll see themselves that way and do that level of work. 

She married a fellow grad student and they moved to Laurence, KS. Sheridan and Marcy were born in Kansas. The family also spent 18 months in London. In 1974, they moved to Austin, TX and settled there, going back to London in the spring of 1981. Judith taught for several years, but later moved into public policy. She worked for two Texas State Senators and loved her time in the Legislature. She was especially proud of the work she did on the Housing Committee, working on housing as right for all people. After the Legislature, she worked for a consortium focused on implemetation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In Austin, Judith did an extraordinary range of things including cooking, vegetable gardening, sewing, building furniture, leading Girl Scout troops. She did lots of volonteering: at school, for the neighborhood association, for local campaigns. She welcomed new neighbors. She planned activities for kids when there was a day off school for teacher conferences, so that parents who couldn't take off from work had childcare for that day. She told the neighbors she was going to babysit their kids at least once a month so the parents could go on dates. After a while, she explained that she would take the kids an hour early so that the mom had time and peace to do her hair and makeup before going out.

Judith made sure her daughters had wonderful experiences like camping, violin lessons, the occasional little shopping spree. She read to them and the house was full of books. She loved cooking. She made wonderful homemade pizzas, put on fancy dinners, branched out into Indian food and other cuisines. Her daughters grew up on homemade bread. She sometimes made gourmet pet food from leftover turkey bones or shrimp tails.

She cared for several cats over her life, including Wink and Cinder. When Judith was about to become an empty nester, a shy, sweet, lost golden lab joined her on a walk and wouldn't leave her. It became clear the dog had been abandoned. So Madison became her dog, and Judith gave Madison a long and wonderful life.

She was supportive of her family and other families, always willing to do what she could to pitch in, help out, do her part. She divorced but always cared about her ex-in-laws. Eventually, she moved back to Quiet Meadow (where her parents had returned upon retirement) so that our grandmother Muffy would have the very goldenest of golden years. Thanks to Judith, Muffy had companionship, care, and support for each stage of her old age. This allowed Muffy to live exactly as she wished, at home and doing the things she loved. Thanks in large part to Judith's care, Muffy lived to 99 years and 11 months, a blessing for so many people. And no one in the family ever had to worry about Muffy or make any painful decisions about moving her out of her beloved Quiet Meadow.

From Quiet Meadow, Judith continued to support her daughters in many ways. She would take Marcy's cats when Marcy went gallivanting off to foreign countries. And she also helped bring the cats to and fro to France—twice! She enjoyed spending time in California with Sheridan, Caris, Finn, and Bob. When Marcy had her twins, Judith came for the first six weeks. She often came for their birthday. A visit from Judith often meant that you had someone to cook for you, or paint a room, or build something. 

She was generous and enjoyed spoiling us and also our friends quite regularly. She loved to take people out to eat, buy them good sweaters, or nice sheets, or fancy gadgets. She had simple tastes, but she wanted to give others the best she could. She had some deep and abiding friendships. She was happy with great conversation, wine, coffee, good food, something to read, some plants to tend, and watching a bit of tennis on TV. In her senior years, she took up Tai Chi. She loved it and the community she found through it.

Judith always marched to the beat of her own drum. She was independent, stubborn, introverted, ethical, caring, and extremely intelligent. She is deeply, deeply missed.