Tess Senay Raynovich Art & Earth Fund

Sometimes, I worry that I am being self-indulgent, working to remember Tess in this particular way. We have done some things here at Tess’s fund; given out four scholarships, piloted a photography/photo editing program, presented an exhibit from that program, funded an eco-arts summer camp, and a few other things in just under two years since Tess died.  It certainly helps us to do this work and to honor Tess.

The ups and downs of building a fund can fill and rack a soul...

I don't know if the day will come when I don't think 'this is too hard' or go 24 hours without crying, in a way that suffcates and has to be relieved with the kind of breathing I first learned in Lamaze class. Perhaps I will, but for now that is part of my normal day. I can see now how my work with Tess's Fund (all of you who have supported it) has given me a way t...

A year ago, at nearly this very moment, I was sitting in my living room, cozy and warm while the wind and the rain drenched the night outside. I was not so much "curled up" on my leather armchair as I was awkwardly balancing two separate nursing pillows, a back rest, my boobs, a newborn, and a book. I had just started re-reading a page for the seventeenth time that day when there was a knock at the door. Shawn and I immediately locked eyes, alert, eyebrows raised in worry. No one ever c...

Our friend, Marion Winik, wrote a great column on loss and Dia de los Muertos. For many people this is a holiday where they can openly show their love  for their lost ones. Tess loved the art of this holiday as you can tell by looking through her art. The TSR Art and Earth Fund created a store front ofrenda for Tess and supported Pittsbur...

One year ago today I was lucky to spend a beautiful warm fall day with Tess. We went to the South Side to pick out a coat that would get her through the Montana winter she would be leaving for in a few weeks. We ran into her friends, Shelby and Paul.

We went to Phipps Conservatory before joining some of my writer friends for dinner and then over to a poetry ...

From Wikipedia’s page on Bereavement in Judaism

Visiting the gravesite

The grave of rabbi-singer Shlomo Carlebach in Jerusalem is piled with stones left by visitors.

Some have a custom to visit the cemetery on fast days (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 559:10) and before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (581:...

Everyday is hard without Tess. Nothing changes that, but if we can be comforted by anything, this last month’s activities made a strong effort. For me it started in Ireland, where I spent Tess’s birthday with her grandma, who shares her birthday, and several family members. It was a beautiful distraction. My sister Anne and I were able to spend a few quiet days in the western Ireland which comforted me with it’s turbulent weather, cinematic shores and acres of r...

We want to thank all the students who submitted their poems for consideration, our supporters who make the scholarship possible, and Jan Beatty who volunteered her time and talent to judge the submissions for Tess's Poetry Scholarship.

Just got this note today from Tess's Uncle Toe, "Here’s a story for you: a former coworker of mine recently returned from several months of world travel. We got coffee a couple days ago and he told me how he was trekking in Nepal to one of the Everest base camps, when he checked email at an internet café in a tiny village, and learned about Tess’s...

From Chelsea Domaleski

The philosophy Tess had for her life, or what I believe itto be is of truth, love and beauty. On my first day entering the 'new world' that is college, boys, more boys, pretending to do my homework, roaming around NYC and fun and all the things we won't tell our parents about started with was a truthful, loving and beautiful woman--Tess Senay. I really am having a hardtime writing about her, she was the vision of what I study in my dance studies as the delicacy of...

From Chelsea Domaleski

One of the best days I spent with Tess was when she came to visit me last fall. I was living in New Jersey at the time so I took the train into the city to see her and our friend Brian (who's house she was staying at). This was the first time I had seen her since she got back from Alaska, we had just been texting when she was gone, I was excited to here about her trip and see her tattoo. Of course we had to have our spaz out reunion with our fake accents that piss...

Tess had told me about the tattoo she was planning to get. At the time she was in Juneau, Alaska and her oral description of what she wanted sounded more thought out than most, but I was against it. "Just think about it more," I said. Inside I wanted to call her Uncle Toe who she was staying with, and tell him to go to the tattoo parlor and tell them if they tattooed that girl there would be hell to pay. Juneau is a very small town surrounded by mountains and water so this could have delayed ...