At age 13, I returned “home” after three years in a wartime concentration camp. Shunned by peers and community I was lonely and wanted to be near people. I walked to the closest church on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings for the youth group.

My association with that church continued through my first years of teaching high school in Creswell. I taught a Sunday school class for students and Bible college students where I met my future husband. He was the pianist/organist for the Unitarian Church. I discovered that I was one of those who was a UU all my life and didn’t know it!

My husband and I were founding members of the South Coast UU Fellowship in Coos Bay/Coos County and we were active there until his death in 1996. When I moved to Ashland in 2005 I immediately joined RVUUF and got involved. I served on the Endowment Committee, in the kitchen and on the highway cleanup committee. Currently I serve four days a week at the homeless shelter.

I have attended five General Assemblies and would go every year if possible just to experience the exhilaration of singing “Spirit of Life” with 4,000 other UUs!

Mitzi Loftus
Member/Supporter of RVUUF