Dr. Carmela Corallo Jackson Passes June 16 I lost a good friend this past month—the whole community lost one of its special members. Carmela Corallo Jackson, passed June 16, and truly, I've never met anyone quite like her. She was incredibly talented and brilliant. She had a B.A. Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California , Berkeley , as well as a Ph.D. in Psychology.  She was a psychic counselor, shaman, and healer.  Carmela was the Director of the Infinite Winds Center and a frequent guest on television and radio. Her accomplishments and credentials are too numerous to mention. To know those details I suggest you go to her website at: www.carmelajackson.com/about_us For me she always embodied how many of us, I think, would like to be—especially when it came to patience.

I met her in a workshop in the mid-eighties shortly after I started The Light Connection. We sat next to each other and talked. Soon after she started advertising with us.

I remember her calling after her ad appeared to praise us for how well it came out. She went on and on, and then before she closed mentioned that next month it would be great if we spelled her first name right.

After the second ad came out she called again to tell us how much she liked it, and—I hate to say—right before she said good-bye, she said, “Oh, and next month could you change the spelling of my first name?”

The third month, she called again. I was a little nervous as she praised the looks of the ad and then she thanked me for correcting the spelling of her first name. Phew. Then added, “I'm not sure why, but you also changed the spelling of my last name, Corallo, and it was okay before.” While it's embarrassing to tell that, it was so typical of Carmela.

As I got to know her better, I realized she was more concerned that I would feel bad, than she was concerned about the mistakes. She didn't want to be the cause of my feeling bad. She had more patience than anyone I have ever met.

Years after she stopped advertising she would send us a check for $40 or $70 from time to time. She did this about 4 times and it drove the bookkeeper nuts. She'd call Carmela and want to know what it was for. She'd just say she just wanted to support us, and thank us for what we were doing.

We regularly got together for lunch. While all of us from time to time I think slip into complaining or get upset about something. Carmela always laughed, smiled or found a reason why the person someone was complaining about did what he or she did.

More than anything, she didn't seem to attach to negative emotions and let things get to her. She moved on. At the same time, it was okay for someone to complain. I never remember feeling judged by her for anything I said or did—only loved.

If this gives you the impression that she was quiet, retiring and always trying to tread lightly, you never heard her laugh. She loved getting people together and often did. He loved parties and laughing. She loved people.

I saw her in May, so she went relatively quickly. She was fighting a respiratory thing, she told me. I tried to see her in the hospital before she left, many people did, but she decided she only wanted her family and a couple of others to see her at that point. People sent notes and emails at the end that were read to her.

I was told she made a clear decision to leave the planet and wanted people to remember her differently. “I'd like people to think of their most cherished moment of our friendship, and talk to me from that time and place in their own hearts,” she said.

The hard part about that is selecting just one moment. And still, she'll be missed by me and I know, many others.

—Steve Hays

 

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