Bertie

Back in September, we lost a valued member of our Peace Corps family. Bertie Murphy, probably the most beloved member of our training crew, died in her sleep in her beach-side house in Hopkins village. In the year plus I knew her, I never heard a single person speak a word against her. A former bee-keeper from Virginia, she decided in her early 70’s to join the Peace Corps. She was a gentle soul, brimming with a long lifetime’s worth of wisdom that she shared willingly but without pretence or judgment. She laughed easily, and smiled often, typically with a glint of mischief in her eyes. I didn’t see her much once we got our assignments – not because she didn’t care to hang out with the rest of us, but because she was dedicated to becoming a member of the Hopkins community. And she was well loved there, as she was everywhere. They called her dunuru, Garifuna for “bird.”


In late October I traveled down to Hopkins to watch as the school where she worked dedicated their library to “Miss Bertie.” A fitting tribute to an extraordinary woman, who brought out the best in everyone she turned her beautiful smile to.