Hanna Madsen Had Faith

I read in today's Salt Lake Tribune that my friend Hanna Madsen passed away in her sleep. She was only 65, but  I'd heard she had dealt with health issues for several years.

We first met one another back in 1984 when I attended my Democratic legislative district meeting. As we were electing officers for the district, Hanna took it upon herself to get me elected vice chair. I'd just met her and she was already volunteering me to get involved.

Two years later, Hank (as I'd taken to calling her) ran for the Utah House of Representatives, and she asked two college kids - Kerri Christenson (Nakamura) and me -  to run her campaign. I think the folks in the county party must have thought she wanted to lose the race by having two inexperience students run her campaign. But she had faith that we could do it. And we almost pulled it off - she lost by only 250 votes.


Hanna was like that. She had great faith that all the younger generation needed was an opportunity. She believed that what politics really needed was more young people and more women involved. She was right. She's still right. In lieu of flowers one of the charities her kids chose is Emily's List an organization dedicated to helping elect pro-choice, Democratic women.

https://emilyslist.org/action/contribute

Even though it's been a long time since we've seen each other, I miss her already.

Thanks, Hank, for having faith.