From Facebook:
Lori Holder-Webb
1967 -2022
When Lori Holder-Webb was in college, she had a close call with Death. She made a deal with him then, that if he gave her more time, she would use all of that time and waste none of it. She spent her life keeping that promise.
Knowing as she did that her time here was limited, she did not suffer fools gladly or at all. You knew immediately if she didn’t have any use for you, and you would be best advised to stay out of her way if this was the case. Nonetheless, she was fast in friendship and was once adopted by an entire village in rural France when she was visiting. People tended to feel as strongly about her as she did about them, one way or the other.
After earning her Doctorate in Accounting at Texas A&M she traveled north. In Wisconsin, she skated for the first time on a frozen river, discovering in the soaring speed the place where her spirit lived. She was also at home in the cold wind and the speed of downhill skiing, a sport that suited her quick and bold spirit like no other. Apres ski, she could be found with her ski tribe bonding over runs and gear, combining her passion for elite ski gear and locally brewed Vermont double IPA. In summer, she loved the Maine coast, and she never met a lighthouse she didn’t like. She and her husband spent time every summer in Maine, where she could find the best hikes, the best beer, and the best kayaking.
She shared a passionate bond with her husband, Jeffrey Cohen, building a life of adventure backed by a soundtrack of Ella Fitzgerald and John Coltrane. She proposed to him at the top of the Eiffel Tower, which gave him fair warning of what the rest of their time together would be like, as she didn’t have time for other people to make up their minds about what she knew was the right thing to do. With him she found and accepted an unconditional love and caring that to her old friends seemed as unlikely as a July snowstorm in Texas.
One of her other great loves was her horse, Huey the Wonder Horse a Dutch Warmblood of superior pedigree. The two of them had a bond that allowed them speak to each other without speaking, even at a distance. She often regaled her friends with the hilarious things that Huey had told her, and we knew that she was relating these words exactly as she’d heard them. She had a remarkable way with animals, especially horses and cats.
She loved good food, and good beer, and always had the best Scotch whiskey. She could mix the exact cocktail that you needed, even if you didn’t know you needed it. She was famed for her cooking, which she learned while young so she could spare herself from eating food that she deemed unworthy. She did not have time for bad food any more than she had time for bad company. She displayed her light and fire to the world, and everyone who encountered her knew they were in the presence of the divine spark. This was reinforced by her Hebrew name, Serafina, emblematic of flaming wings that spread light to those open to it.
She was also a fiber artist, creating felted, spun, knitted, and woven creations that were her delight to share with her friends and family. She leaves behind an enormous fiber stash that will be divided (and possibly fought over) by her friends who shared her enthusiasm for this art form.
When the time came, she met Death as an old friend, and he saw that she kept her promise. The memory of her will be with us when we feel the cold wind before the snow in the winter, when we see the fireflies in the summer, and whenever we hear the opening bars of Moonlight in Vermont.