I was so lucky to know her
So often at meetings and conferences a fatigue settles upon the gathering and issues can go unchallenged and even some follies might be undisputed – but not ever if Adela was present. She would always be guaranteed to shake us out of our lethargy and demand our minds to wake up and think again, deeper or best of all, well beyond the simple solutions. I regularly, over the many years that I was so lucky to know her, came to attention, wishing I’d thought of whatever her uncompromising question would have posed.
But Adela wasn’t just a clear thinking academic. She genuinely cared about her students and would represent them energetically in meetings, to bring them chances from across the world or to gently help them to express their views at home, so that they would be heard in their own terms. That mix is all too rare.
All of us who need to learn will definitely be much poorer without her but no more than those of us who had the privilege to share a lager with her in the park in Bucharest, reflecting upon how to make the world better, to find time for the important things and to be happy just to enjoy those we love. Adela did it all so well and yet, in all the time I knew her, she never stopped wanting to do it much much more.
We have lost a fine friend and a very dear colleague.
Sue Wolstenholme,
Preşedinte EUPRERA (2008, 2009), Director la ”Ashley Public Relations”, Plymouth, United Kingdom
Adela Rogojinaru 