Margaret Riddleberger

On Wednesday, July 1, 2009, Margaret Laughlin Riddleberger, known to many as "Mizzar" passed away. Teaching right up to Saturday, Mom went peacefully onto her next journey. She will forever be in our hearts, in our worlds and in our souls. When you watch the fireworks on the fourth - know that this is her grand entrance filled with electricity, vibrancy, sparkle & class. Dad (Harrison Holt Riddleberger) will be there to greet her with Manhattan in hand!
SERVICES: As you all know - formality was not her thing. Instead we will have a "Celebration of her Life" at her house in August. (Date to be determined). ALL are welcome. Everyone is invited to write down something - a memory, a story, a thought about you and Mom (aka Mizzar), Either send them to us or bring it to the Celebration. We will gather them for all to read, sharing stories that many of us won't be aware of as we celebrate Mom, her achievements & her life's work. Contact: hwinter11@aol.com
DONATIONS: In lieu of flowers if you would like to send a donation there are 2 places listed below. Both of these places have a special place in our hearts. Please put: In Memory of Margaret Riddleberger on either the outside of the envelope or in the "memo" portion of the check:
- Casey House Montgomery Hospice - 6001 Muncaster Mill Road-Rockville, MD 20855
Casey House was amazing in Mom's final days providing both Mom and all of us the care, kindness, love, support & strength we needed to let go.
Sibley Memorial Hospital Foundation-5255 Loughboro Road, NW, Washington, D.C. 20016
Sibley Hospital is, as many of you know, a place that has been helping our family for years - it has stood by us in times of loss with both our Grandmother & Dad and times of joy keeping me (Pam) around and bringing our miracle Amy into this world.

Wewanted to end this with a summation - but to summarize Mom's life would be a travesty - almost comical, because it is impossible! A very dear friend emailed us this - the words are so fitting - I am "stealing them" to share with you.
... Carmen was one of Mizzar's roles when she was a young artist at the Met in the 1950's... & Juliette. & Lucia. And then she moved into assistant directing. And singing in nightclubs. And modeling. And photography. And lecturing on the psychology of stage fright. In fact, more careers than it is possible to believe. Many of us wondered if it was all really true. Could one person have done all that? If anyone could, it was Mizzar.

But the career we all knew her for was teaching. And she taught. Taught with a ferocity that exceeded understanding. Three days a week in Washington, three days a week in New York. And one day a week to see all the shows her students were in. (Because teaching for her was a ten- to twelve-hour-a-day job. There were lessons at 9 am and and 8 pm. Lessons, lessons, lessons. Only on her "day off" could she see a show. Usually two -- matinee and evening. If you got a show that performed at 11 am on Sunday morning, she loved it. Three shows in a day!)

And then the trips to Paris. How did she do the trips to Paris? She flew over ... what? Twice a year, three times a year? It varied, but she did it. Seminars on voice for businesspeople and lawyers. And singers. She did it in Paris.

(Did I mention she grew up in Paris and was fluent in French, although her spelling in both English and French was atrocious?)And she taught the same seminars in at Montgomery Community College in Rockville, Maryland. She taught seminars wherever she could. Spreading the gospel of Mizzar voice production. She devised it. She believed in it. And she continued to develop it until ....

Well, I don't know if she continued it to the last minute, but I know that after her first cancer surgery she was deeply involved with all the physical therapists they sent her, trying to glean from them what they knew about the human body and imparting what she knew. And making new discoveries. I can only picture what bedside visits at Sibley Hospital were like with her.

She was making new discoveries until the very end. You know what -- she's probably making new discoveries right now. As she wafts through the ether, she's probably developing new theories about how energy transfers on light beams to make sound. Who knows!