Love & Light for Christy Lorio
Christy Lorio—author of our chapbook, Cold Comfort—passed away earlier this week peacefully at home with her loved ones. I wish I could have known Christy better, but in the last few months we corresponded in some form most days and kept up with each other’s social media updates. I’ll miss her.
It means a great deal to us to have been able to bring her project into print, and we’re thankful that she got to see it, as well as to see the warm reception it had by so many who cared about her. I enjoyed seeing the photos she shared from people as their own copies of Cold Comfort arrived.
I’m grateful to the good people at Gambit for highlighting her work in this thoughtful tribute. My last exchange with Christy was about this story, and it feels good to know that she knew it was in the works.
Near the end of her essay “Scars,” she put it simply: “I want to live, and I want to live fully.” In the essay “Clothes,” she also said, “When your life exists in the dark spots, you need to interject brightness into your life as much as possible.” What stood out to me in every impression I ever had of her—on Twitter, in her other published work, in her photography, and of course in Cold Comfort—was her unrelenting commitment to live as deeply as possible regardless of what came her way. It’s difficult to articulate this in the ways that I’d like. I’m just thankful to have had the chance to see her as an example for how to keep living: brightly, fiercely, and without holding back.
For people looking for ways to support Christy’s family:
Order her chapbook, Cold Comfort; $5 from each copy sold goes directly to them. We are nearly out of stock again but expect another print run around mid-December.
Contribute to this GoFundMe (organized by a friend of the family) to help with funeral and medical costs.
You can also read our interview with Christy and an excerpt from her chapbook.