We lost a tremendous leader and friend today with the passing of former Senator Pat Wiggins. RIP Dear Friend. Here are my comments from today adjourning session in her memory: “I wanted to take the opportunity to adjourn session today in memory of our friend and former colleague, former Senator Pat Wiggins. She passed away this morning at 2 A.M. after a very, very long illness.” “As many of you knew and served with Pat Wiggins, she was a very strong woman and she battled a very serious illness for many, many years and then died this morning. She was not only my former colleague on the Santa Rosa City Council; she was my friend, and my hero and really my older sister because everywhere Pat went, I seemed to follow. “She started her elected career on the Santa Rosa City Council where she was the vanguard of a new progressive movement in our community, one that I’ve been very grateful to represent myself. “She then served six years in the State Assembly and then four years in the State Senate. Those of you that were here with her at the time know she was dealing with some very profound difficulties. One of which was that she was almost completely deaf. “Although she didn’t make a big deal of it, she had a very, very difficult time hearing anything and she mostly read lips and that’s how she understood what people were saying to her. And the fact that a lot of people didn’t know about this profound disability that she struggled with is amazing to me and just shows the kind of character that she was because she overcame any difficulty, any obstacle in her way because she believed in what she was doing. “And she believed strongly in representing the people who could not speak for themselves—and perhaps couldn’t hear for themselves—and that’s what she dedicated her life to. And that life today has ended. “We will remember her as being an extraordinary leader and extraordinary friend.” You can watch the adjournment here beginging at 39:00: calchannel.granicus/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=1558
Posted on: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 22:11:21 +0000