Eulogy for Chiara

One of the greatest virtues we can attain in our lifetime is knowing how to live. Knowing how to make the whole room dance at just the right moment, knowing how to tell a captivating story, knowing that everyone should take out time to learn the art of bongo drumming at some point in their life. It is the ability to seek joy and bring it to those we meet every single day that allows us to really know how to live. The will to share your happiness with people around you—whether they are strangers, friends, foreigners, or just passersby—is a human ability we were all born with, yet it is so rare that you see someone embody this value as much as Chiara did.

How many people here can tell a story about meeting Chiara for the first time, going on with your day, week, or month, and then running into a girl who is suddenly hugging you and saying, “hey, you’re Claire McTaggart from Connecticut, I’m Chiara, we met the other day.”

This love of life and all the people in it is what has always made Chiara absolutely unforgettable. While most of us settle into what is comfortable and most familiar, Chiara set out to explore all she could that was unseen, friend any whose path she crossed, and ingrain herself into our memories as that really friendly girl with the wild curly hair.

It is Chiara’s style of living and her hunger to embrace everything outside her comfort zone that we should take with us. We should think about that eccentric Italian Jewish girl from Danville, Kentucky, and remember her emails from Montpellier France, the stories from deer camp in Marquette Michigan, the pictures of Chiara tearing up the dance floor in downtown Brooklyn and the great hat she bought for the Kentucky Derby.

We are all at such a great loss in her absence, but Chiara would never want us to sit here mourning. In her death she has still managed to bring people from all walks of life together, where NFL players can meet Italian New Yorkers who can meet Kentucky locals who can meet Michigan sorority girls. If anything, our obligation is to imagine those things about Chiara that made her so vivacious and so unique and incorporate that into yourself.

If you have trouble meeting new people, just remember Chiara and go introduce yourself to someone new. If you have never left your hometown, think of Chiara and find a way to travel to an unexpected city. If you find yourself stressed or working all the time, keep Chiara close in your mind and do something spontaneous with your friends. If your friends are all one age or one nationality or one race or one religion or one class remember our friend and learn how to appreciate those different from ourselves. And all of us, whenever we have the urge to speak badly to another or look down on someone else, please, let Chiara become a life long lesson so that we can all come out of this better people than we were before.

What happened to Chiara was a tragedy, but we must comfort ourselves knowing that in 23 years Chiara lived more than most people could in a lifetime. So lets each take a part of her with us, lets become that part of chiara that you always admired but never had the courage to be, and this way she will be living throughout each and every one of us as long as we live. Once we have wiped away the tears and expressed our condolences, please, let us each go back into our lives and become those people Chiara would have been honored to see us become, because through this she will never be outside our hearts.

THIS WELL WRITTEN EULOGY MELTED MY HEART AS IT ECHOED MY SENTIMENTS.