HUGH E. DEWITT'S REMARKS: When Laila was born 42 years ago, she was my lovely little daughter who was delightful in every respect. Growing up in Berkeley proved difficult however, and by the time she was an adult she suffered from serious emotional and mental turmoil which try as she might she never quite overcame. Sometimes people can never free themselves of their demons and depressions. It is a terrible shock to us as parents to lose our child, however, and at at time like this I want only to remember the good things in Laila's life. She was a bright energetic chilld, and in her adult years she and I did happy things together. These included skiing trips in the Sierras, back packing trips, river rafting trips. She loved the wilderness. She loved swimming in Lake Tahoe even in the early spring and ignored the cold. Her happiest times were some of our mountain trips. Laila had an unusual desire to learn languages starting with French and going on to Chinese. She also loved gardening, and grew marvelous vegetables in very small amounts of land. She was gifted as a teenager at ballet. She and her partner, Pete, had 21 years together, and they surely enriched each others lives. We have beautiful pictures of Laila from these 42 years that we will always treasure. These memories will help us to endure the pain of losing her too soon. SANNE DEWITT'S REMARKS: Dear friends: Our family stands here with broken hearts over the loss of our beautiful and lovely daughter, Laila. Our most precious gift was the birth of our children and our most tragic moment is our loss of our daughter. Let me tall you about Laila. She was the most beautiful baby on earth. All of the nurses in the hospital came to look at her and hold her. She developed into a warm, lovely and talented child who was deeply compassionate and caring. She always invited the least liked, or most shy, child in her classes to our house to play with to and attend parties. Laila’s biggest talent was dance and she excelled in ballet. She was asked to join a ballet company and was recruited to the UC Berkeley dance department. Laila was an outdoor girl who loved skiing, swimming, biking and hiking. She trekked around Annapurna in Nepal with Arlene Blum and achieved altitudes of 18,000 feet. She was very proud of her excellent time in her most recent triathalon - better time than some of the men! Another one of Laila’s loves was animals. She was a vegetarian and couldn’t hurt a fly. She loved her cat and wanted more pets. She cuddled up to our dog, Lolita, who "kissed" her endlessly when she was home at our house. Laila had a green thumb and was able to grow wonderful vegetables in her tiny but productive garden. She brought the fruit of the earth to our dinners, especially on Jewish holidays. Laila, and Pete, her partner of 21 years, loved to go to National Parks to camp and hike, both summer and winter. Laila was deeply Jewish and spent a year in Israel on Kibbutz Kfar Blum in 10th grade. Her wish was to return to Israel again some time and renew her Hebrew and re-visit her Kibbutz. To say that we will miss her is an understatement. This is a great tragedy but we did have a priceless gift while she was with us. Sanne DeWitt ********************************************************************************** THIS FUNERAL WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE. THOSE WISHING TO HEAR AND SEE THE FUNERAL SHOULD CLICK ON "ATTEND LIVE SERVICE" BELOW.