(Published in HSFF Newsletter December 2002)

We were all surprised when Charlotte White died on September 5, 2002. We couldn’t imagine this vibrant woman who rushed into the Foundation offices the day before, excitedly waving an article about us in the New Mexican, would be gone the next day.

     During the emotional weeks that followed as we worked with Charlotte’s friends and family in distributing her estate, we realized how much we were like her family, too. Like a child whose mother has saved every adolescent drawing, promising report card or endearing note, there in her belongings, we found letters and newspaper clippings that followed the “life” of the Foundation.  

      The generous act of giving her house to the Foundation is extraordinary. Few of us who consider such a contribution actually do it. Just as she provided for us her house, in her thoughtfully prepared will, she distributed specific items to friends, family, extended family and museums. 

     Her macular degeneration had advanced to the point that she was declared legally blind this summer. She had been placed on the waiting list of an assisted living facility in Boulder near her niece Karin Jackson. She didn’t want to leave the home that she loved. In fact, she said she was weary of living.

     We suppose it happened as it should have happened; what was best for Charlotte. She died after an evening among friends. She died in the bed in which she was born. She died in the house that was her dignity, occupation, achievement; it was her life. 

      Charlotte’s house on Alto Street represents a great triumph for her and her partner Boris Gilbertson. A book published by HSFF in 2001 entitled, Within Adobe Walls: A Santa Fe Journal, chronicles their transformation of the near ruin into a home that housed their art and memories. Boris’ sculpture and Charlotte’s landscape plantings define the house’s character and it’s that character we will preserve.