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Bench
on Mount Tamalpais Dedicated to Mimi Fariña
By Paul Liberatore |
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On
April 30, a sunny Saturday that would have been Bread & Roses founder Mimi
Fariņa's 60th birthday, a small group of her family and friends
hiked her favorite trail on Mount Tamalpais and dedicated a memorial bench
in her honor.
The gracefully curved redwood bench overlooks Muir Woods and commands soaring
views out to the ocean. "In Loving Memory of Mimi Fariņa" is engraved on
a black stone plaque along with the Bread & Roses logo.
In an informal ceremony, Mimi's sister, Joan Baez, sang
a funny little ditty that she and Mimi used to sing when they were growing
up.
Mimi's cousin, Skip Henderson, read a prescient poem that
Mimi wrote for a high school English assignment in 1960, when she was 15.
Titled "What is Good?", it goes:
"Searching for the real good is like looking into a rose; in each petal
grows an idea from the stem that holds the answer. A rose must be nourished
for the beauty of its bloom, as a person must give kindness to experience
'good.' If a flower isn't cared for, like a person it will die with all
potential goodness just wasted. As a stem is to a flower, the heart is to
a man, every beat a starting point of kindness to do with it what he can."
After Mimi's death in July 2001, I launched the memorial bench project,
working with B&R advisory board member Jan Yanehiro to
get approval from Mount Tamalpais State Park. Dan Nowell,
a former B&R Board member, installed the bench, generously giving of his
time and skills.
To visit it, take Panoramic Highway and turn left on Ridge Avenue. Park
in the lot at the end of Ridge and walk down the paved roadway. Proceed
west on Redwood Trail to Mimi's bench, which is on the right at the top
of a rise. It's beautiful, just as she was.
Journalist Paul Liberatore writes for the Marin Independent Journal
and was Mimi Fariņa's partner.
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