There are so many things I’d like to say about Gina.  I’ve struggled for a couple of weeks about what to say here today.  I had a dream a couple of nights ago, a nightmare really, about something bad happening to Travis that helped me prioritize the greatest gift Gina gave to me that I need to share today. 
I wasn’t interested in kids prior to Travis being born. GINA wasn’t interested in having kids of her own either when we got married. Then we spent 27 months in Zambia between 2011 and 2013.  
Before we met each other, both of us were too eager to take on a variety of physical and mental challenges to be slowed down by a baby.  For me these challenges ranged from 

• packing my things and moving to a different state where I didn’t know anyone, TWICE
• taking a self paced college level Physics class via remote learning BEFORE Zoom or GotoMeeting
• A variety of outdoor sports like Back-country skiing, winter camping, mountain climbing, rock climbing, and ultimate Frisbee, 
• Going to graduate school at 30 years old, AND
• Proposing to Gina and committing myself to her for the rest of my life.

All of these challenges felt RIGHT.  I embraced them.  Then Gina said she wanted to create a child with me.  It was about mid-way through our shared-challenge of joining the United States Peace Corps.  I was paralyzed.  I couldn’t even talk to her about it.  All I could do was shake my head “no”.  We struggled for almost 2 years with that until I realized the future of our relationship was at risk.  Our Marriage wasn’t at risk- she was just as committed to me as I was to her.  But I sensed Gina would have a deep sense of regret and that our relationship would forever be scarred if she didn’t at least try to be a mom.  So I reluctantly agreed.  I secretly hoped that the botched X-Ray I had to get while we were in Zambia for an injured knee by a poorly trained healthcare worker with an X-Ray machine from the 1950’s had made me sterile. 

Even after a nauseating pregnancy that ended in a traumatic miscarriage Gina wanted to try again.  After another challenging pregnancy that exemplified Gina’s commitment to having a healthy baby, Travis Canyon Kline was born. I felt that amazing feeling that new Dads get when they are holding their baby for the first time, but I still felt that parenthood was for Gina and I was along for the ride.

Gina’s life was fulfilling and happy before, but the kind of fulfillment and happiness she got out of being a Mom was at a new level.  And just like the infectious smile on her face and spring in her step that I, and everyone else, seemed to notice about her, her love for Travis infected me.  The joy she experienced while showing Travis the world entered and grew in me.  The exhilaration of an entirely different kind of challenge- caring for and raising a child, filled our need for adventure.  I never would have felt that kind of love, joy, and adventure without Gina’s persistence and faith in my ability to be a father.  For that, I thank you Gina. 

Travis keeps me going these days.  His cheer and goofiness remind me of the good times with Gina and that life will continue.  It pains me that Travis will have few first-hand memories of Gina.  Think about that- how many memories of YOUR pre-six year old life do you have?  Everyday since I told Travis of her death I’ve talked to him about Gina.  And I encourage everyone else to tell the stories of Gina to him.  Show him the pictures and videos of her that show how wonderful she was.  Keep her spirit known to him and help all of us get past this grief.

Here are three few of stories about some of the little moments with Gina that made her special to me. 

1). I’ll never be able to look at breakfast cereal the same way after living with Gina.  Prior to meeting her I would always eat cereal from the only open box I had, thinking that I wanted to keep the other 3 or 4 boxes of cereal fresh for when I opened the next box after the first box was finished.  She loved mixing different cereals.  I had to do a double take the first time we were having a simple breakfast of cereal and fruit.  She mixed her granola and her raisin bran.  Or her cheerios and mini-wheats.  Sometimes she would mix three or four cereals together! 
I said, “I think you’re going to end up with 4 stale cereals because it could take months to go through all the open boxes instead of a couple of weeks if you used just one at a time.”
“So what!” she said. “They taste better when you mix them, always better than just one cereal by itself.” 
It took me a few years to catch on, but now I frequently mix cereals together for a better experience. 

2)  Another standout for me was Gina’s love of getting to know and relating to other people, in particular people from other countries and cultural backgrounds.
Gina and I had just started one of our biggest adventures together as Peace Corps Volunteers in rural Zambia.  We had finished our 3 month training separately, learning Zambian culture, technical skills to help our village, and the local language of our village-to-be.  Gina was on par with her fellow trainees to learn the language we would be using: Chi-Lunda. Because of my proficiency in my language class, I was asked to speak in Lunda at our swearing-in ceremony to mark the end of training and beginning of our service. Even Gina acknowledged that my Lunda vocabulary and accent was better than hers. 
Early in our service I recall a neighbor Zambian coming over to our hut and wanting to talk to me about something happening in the village.  She seemed to have something important to say, though it didn’t appear to be an emergency.  The woman talked quickly and used at a lot of Zambian slang, so I couldn’t understand much of what she was saying.  The woman got frustrated with me.  Gina came out of the hut and the older woman started speaking to Gina about the same thing in the same manner.  I was amazed as Gina stood next to her, looked her in the eyes, and responded to her deluge of words with smiles, compassion, and some simple catch-all Lunda phrases placed at the end of the woman’s sentences.  After a minute or so the older woman thanked Gina and was relieved that she had conveyed what she wanted to say.  The woman looked over at me and slowly spoke in Lunda to explain that Amama Gina speaks better Lunda than Atata Scott, and then left. I asked Gina what the woman was talking about.  Gina smiled, a little embarrassed, and said, 
“I don’t know”.  
Even though I knew the mechanics of the Lunda language better than her she knew how to communicate universally with body language and empathy.  Gina’s way with emotionally connecting with people in the village let people feel comfortable around her and Gina made a lot of progress with that, in Zambia and all over.  

3). After our Peace Corps experience was over in 2013, we took a couple of months to slowly make our way back to the United States.  First stop: Ethiopia.  After returning from a one-of-kind multi-night trekking experience Gina and I both were eager to explore what a little town in northern Ethiopia had to offer for night life.  We went to a little restaurant where the only non-Ethiopians appeared to be me, Gina, and two of the people who went trekking with us.  The entertainment that night was a singer and a guitar player who set up in a corner of the restaurant.  After a while the musical act took to wandering around to individual tables and singing songs in Amharic improvised specifically for the people at the table.  We saw this happening at tables of other Ethiopians and there were lots of laughs from everyone around and embarrassed faces on the patrons. It appeared that the improvised songs were mostly made up to make fun of the people at the table.  Between each table the musicians/comedians would glance over at our table to see if we were open yet to withstand some musical ridicule.  After about 5 tables the singer’s glance over to our table showed Gina gleaming as if to say,
“Make fun of me! Make fun of me!”
They came over and started with their musical intro and proceeded to sing about each person at our table.  We had no idea what they were saying except for the occasional outdated American pop culture reference to Michael Jackson, President Bush, and McDonalds.  When they got to Gina’s turn to take the improvised ridicule, Gina responded as if she won a game and after taking her share of the jokes, got up and started dancing with the guitar player.  The whole place laughed harder than any joke of the evening.  And throughout the whole time I knew her that is how she was: Whenever there was a moment where she could make a choice between making fun of herself or other people, she ALWAYS chose herself.  Gina’s way of having fun allowed everyone to join in.  

We collected all the beautiful words, photos and stories people shared on Facebook or directly with us. Then we turned them into a small book, with print copies for everyone at the memorial. 

See the PDF here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cE5K6vYSml8HH8Y-slAD-5cGL-d4f6Is/view?usp=sharing

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project. For anyone who has more to share, you can continue to post on Facebook or this memorial site.

I’d like to think that some of the best parts of me come from trying to be like Gina.

She was four years older than me, so that was far enough apart in age that we didn’t share clothes and friends like Diana and I did, at least not growing up. It was the right amount of difference in age, tho, that I could watch her and take everything I admired and try to replicate it for myself. 

As kids, Gina got around on her own by bicycle, always on the go to swim team or friends’ houses. She was so independent. I saved up for a bike so I could get around on my own like that too.

Gina took piano lessons from Mrs. McCrae. She was so studious. So I started taking piano lessons from Mrs. McCrae too, catching up quickly enough that by the time I was 10 and she was 14, we were playing Pacobel’s Canon in D as a duet for the recital. 

Gina was a superstar babysitter in the neighborhood. She was so popular with families and kids. So as soon as I turned 12, I set out to build my own high-demand babysitting empire.

Gina worked at Easter Seals Rocky Mountain Village as a camp counselor for kids, teens, and adults with disabilities, including our brothers. She was so involved with the disabilities community in Colorado. So I spent my college summers as a camp counselor at RMV too.

In college, Gina got outdoors, skied, hiked, and biked. She was so active and energized, such a friend to the earth. So I forged my own path to outdoor adventuring too.

Gina traveled abroad and learned Spanish. She was so adventurous and outgoing, even in a second language. So I sought out my own Spanish-learning experiences abroad too.

Gina spent a chapter of her life in East Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. She was so globally-minded and generous with her skills. So I ventured out on an East Africa chapter too. 

The list goes on, right up to the near-present.


A couple years ago, I completed a spin class teacher training and had a brief side-gig as a spin instructor for about a month, then the studio went out of business. Of course, Gina had blazed that trail too. She had majored in exercise science as an undergrad, taught spin and other group fitness classes at the Y during college, and went on to learn and instruct yoga as well. 

Just last November, I was visiting her in Yakima and she brought me along to a meal prep gathering at her friend’s house. This group of women all shared and prepared their favorite healthy recipes over wine while their kids played and put on a talent show in the living room. I wanted that — that kind of blending of households and neighbors into a little village. I tried to plan something similar this winter with some of my longtime girlfriends, but it didn’t quite come to fruition. 

One bright side of my lifelong following in Gina’s footsteps is that our parallel interests and passions started to merge more as adults. We grew closer as we shared experiences. She had done some travel by bicycle in Iceland and Peru, so she was one of the first people I told about the plan I was hatching to ride my bicycle across the country last summer. She shared my vision right away, pointing out that she and Travis would be road-tripping home from a spring season in Denver, and I could join them to reach my starting point in Oregon. She booked a campsite on the Oregon coast for June 14 and that’s what made my plan real. It became a wondrous 10-day road trip full of camping, national park visits, hikes, swimming, and scootering. On day 1 of my ride, Gina gifted me a neon yellow safety vest. She rode the first 10 miles with me. She was one of my biggest cheerleaders for the rest of the journey.

Another bright side to my constant endeavors to emulate Gina is that hopefully everyone who loved her can find those sparks of her in me too, and trace them back to her. 

A guy I dated not long ago said, when trying to woo me, “you must have had some really great parenting.” I didn’t disagree, but that’s only half the picture. I’ve had some really great sistering too. 

Gina, the world will always be a better place having had you in it, albeit too briefly. Rest in power, freedom, and peace. You are so loved. 

Thank you Gina for all the lives you touched and made better with your light and love.  I only knew you for a little bit but you made a big impact with your joy for life and inclusion of all.  I always wanted to be closer to you and figured one day we would, and all I would have to do would be to text you and you would invite me to some wonderful social/community event.  I will always remember the moonlight hike we took on Chinook pass.  It made me so happy to know that you were making my hometown of Yakima a better place with your ability to make connections with people and create community.  When I think of you I think of light and joy.  You have inspired me to re connect with old friends and to live life in the moment with even just a little bit of the joy that you had.  The world needs more Ginas.