Elaine Clearfield, who passed away last week, deserves to be remembered for many things.
At various times during her busy life, she was a skilled journalist and author, an enthusiastic amateur historian, a respected teacher, a dedicated community activist.
All were significant accomplishments of which any person could be proud, but nothing surpasses her excellence in what she always considered her central role that of mother.
Mrs. Clearfield raised three children, two of whom became creative and successful individuals, one of whom was developmentally disabled from birth, and largely thanks to her mothers devotion and sacrifice became successful and creative in her own right, beyond anyones expectations.
Except her mothers.
As she told us eloquently in a 1984 interview, Mrs. Clearfields mission to afford her daughter every possible opportunity to lead a fulfilling life was far from easy. Elaine Clearfield dealt with a host of skeptics and naysayers, from principals to teachers to physicians all of whom she ignored in favor of the few precious allies she sought out. Read the IJN obituary
Later, she extended her passion considerably beyond the personal level, taking the Denver Jewish community to task for its scanty services for the disabled, which helped lead to the founding of the Jewish Group Home. She then took her fight to the community-at-large, whose own shortcomings in this regard
Mrs. Clearfield regularly addressed as a leader of the Denver Association of Retarded Citizens and other groups.
Mrs. Clearfield was fervent, dedicated and she would be the first to admit stubborn. She was willing to be a pain in the appropriate neck, in pursuit of justice for the disabled, as only the best activists can be.
She was, to use her own words, a fighter.
I became a fighter a long time ago, Mrs. Clearfield told the IJN more than a quarter century ago. I feel a person should be given the opportunity to do as much as they can. I guess thats me. I see a problem and I face up to it. I never flee.
To which we can only add Bravo! and express the communitys profound gratitude to a person who really knew how to fight the good fight.
And win.
