Sometimes people have a defining feature that represents their essence. When I have thought about Elvina in the years since I grew up and left my home in Chicago, what always came to mind was her amazing, beautiful, energizing smile. When my sister and I were growing up, Elvina came from Iowa to Chicago to live with us and look after us while our parents were at work. I carry so many wonderful memories from this time…walking through the park and our neighborhood, watching TV while cuddled at her side, eating after-school snacks, and learning about the world and seeing it through her eyes…and her smile. In the decade that we shared the same apartment, Elvina helped to teach me the importance of treating others with respect, compassion and care. I can’t remember her speaking theoretically about concepts such as social justice; instead, she helped me to understand what this means by how she lived her life. She unfailingly treated people with respect, and as equals, no matter who they were. When I was a teenager in the 80s, during a period of panic and fear surrounding AIDS, I remember her telling me how important it was to understand that people are people, and it doesn’t matter who you love as long as you do love. It seemed to me that within the Lutheran Church she truly found her place: a loving community of people with strong values who took care of each other as well as those outside of the community. Her involvement in the Night Bus, the Pride Parade, and the AIDS Ride made a big impact on me and helped to inspire me to become an activist, although I doubt that Elvina would consider what she did as “activism”: she simply viewed the world with compassion and common sense, and acted on those principles…with the biggest, and most beautiful smile one can imagine.