The Bill Bordy Theatre was transformed into a place of collective celebration and grief Thursday evening to honor the life of Nora Kate Onanian, a recent Emerson journalism graduate who passed away last December.
Students, staff, faculty, and friends who Onanian touched during her time at Emerson gathered for a memorial. The celebration was organized by Christie Anglade, vice president and dean of Campus Life, and Tamia Jordan, director of Intercultural Student Affairs.
“It’s not easy to gather in moments like this,” Jordan said to the approximately 50 people sitting around the room. “But it’s important that we at Emerson come together to honor Nora’s life and to share in the grief we are all feeling.”
Jordan invited the attendees to partake in the first of three moments of silence of the night. The first was a “silence for personal reflection” where everyone was encouraged to sit with their own grief and emotions.
Professor Doug Struck, Onanian’s capstone professor last fall, chose to remember her “through her own words,” and shared clips from her assignments and personal blog, Lymphedema Fashionista.
Struck spoke of her trip to the Paralympics in Paris this past August, “that Nora smile many in her life appreciated,” and her sense of humor.
“When Emerson put her—two years in a row—in a 10th floor room that did not well accommodate her wheelchair, she was angry, but she joked, ‘I think the plan in case of a fire was to have a fireman come up, knock on my door, and carry me down ten floors,’” he said.
He also highlighted the high level of work that Onanian completed during her time at Emerson, including her capstone.
“Just three weeks before she passed away, she turned in a thorough, long story to our capstone class—much of it reported from her hospital bed in the intensive care unit,” Struck said. “It was a story about disabled voters. It was straight, it was professional, but even so, you could sense the incredulity in her voice as she looked ahead to today.”
Jordan invited the crowd to join in the second moment of silence of the night for collective grief. Attendees were encouraged to think of the impact Onanian had on not just themselves, but every in her life, both at Emerson and outside of it.
Two students from WERS, Emerson’s radio station, which Onanian wrote music journalism articles for for three years, spoke about her love of music and the passion she brought to the newsroom.
“[Onanian] worked very proudly, a fierce advocate for those with disabilities, passionate leader, enthusiastic patron of the arts, a lover of Calico Critters, a fighter and friend to all,” junior journalism student and WERS Music Coordinator Avi Riviera said.
Erin Norton, a senior creative writing student, remembered Onanian’s gift of connecting with people through music.
“I was going through her playlists [last night] and found one she made for me,” Norton said. “She never told me about it, and it was called ‘for Erin.’ I listened to the whole thing last night. She made me fall in love with music, and I’m forever grateful for that.”
Jordan invited the crowd to partake in the third and final moment of silence to “celebrate Nora Onanian and the person they were and the mark they left on each of us.”
A silence fell over the room as people touched by Onanian, in big ways and small, smiled and sniffled. Lu Ann Reeb, chair of the Journalism Department, led the group in a candle lighting ceremony to close out the vigil.
As they took turns lighting candles at the front of the room, students and faculty alike told stories of how Onanian impacted them—in class, at WERS, in Access: Student Disability Union, or just in passing.
“She was a really bright light,” Reeb said. “Each of us should be super grateful that we had the chance to know Nora, even a little bit.”
