[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4001]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE LIFE OF CHRISTINE SARBANES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Maryland (Ms. Edwards) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. EDWARDS of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as a Marylander in 
honor of another Marylander, Christine Sarbanes, and in honor of her 
service and of her legacy to the State of Maryland and to the people of 
the Fourth Congressional District, which I represent.
  I did not know Christine Sarbanes in the way that you know a person. 
I knew her as a public person. I first met Christine Sarbanes at an 
elementary school at an event, and she didn't even know I was at the 
back of the school, but what I observed of Christine Sarbanes was her 
gentleness and tenacity and her love of education and her love of 
children.
  I think, in some ways, you know a person sometimes by the people 
around them--by their children, by their spouses--and so we know 
Christine Sarbanes by her husband, our beloved Senator Paul Sarbanes, 
by her son and our colleague--John Sarbanes--and her other children. We 
see in them the gentleness and the smarts and the tenacity and the 
passion that was Christine Sarbanes. So it is with a heavy heart that 
we celebrate Christine Sarbanes' legacy.
  I said to John Sarbanes yesterday, as he mentioned that it is 
difficult to know how much you miss a person until they are gone, that 
when one loses a parent--and I know about the loss of a parent--that 
the sadness of today becomes a joy of tomorrow when you remember a 
smile, when you remember something that happened when you were growing 
up, and it touches your heart in a different way.
  So I wish for former Senator Paul Sarbanes, for John Sarbanes and for 
the entire Sarbanes family that there will be days down the line when 
they will remember Christine Sarbanes with that joy and with a little 
bit more lightness of their hearts than they are experiencing today.

                          ____________________