Today I want to remember an extraordinary individual who recently passed away who played a pivotal role in my life, Frances “Sissy” Geballe. If it had not been for Sissy, my life’s journey would have been quite different. While I was deciding between careers in law or consulting after finishing law school, Sissy awarded me the Haas/Koshland Memorial Award to turn a proposal about Arab-Israeli cooperation that I had written in school into actual legislation, and to try building a consultancy business to foster joint ventures. From that, I started my first business, PeaceWorks, which later gave way to the PeaceWorks Foundation’s OneVoice Movement and to KIND. And the rest, as they say, is history.
How does one express their appreciation for that? How can we measure all the impact Sissy had on this world? How many more lives did she impact this way? And how many countless moments of kindness was she responsible for? How many moments of warmth? How many smiles? How many witty comments? How many warm hugs?
I don’t know what happens to our souls when we pass, but if there is anything out there, I hope she and my Dad cross paths and get to share a joke with one another. I’m sending love and comfort to Sissy’s family and friends and all those whose lives she touched.
