Our Friend, 2013
A memorial for Sarah Bollinger by her friends at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education
Silkscreen on wood

“The Cambridge Center for Adult Education’s small-group learning experiences profoundly affect our students. When Sarah Bollinger, a longtime student in Mopsy Strange Kennedy’s memoir classes, died a few years ago, her fellow students wanted to honor her memory and their friendship with her.

‘We were more than simply a group that met weekly,’ said Kennedy. ‘Sarah’s house became a center of sociability and warmth for “The Class,” as we call it.’

Kennedy reached out to Boston-based artist Sarah Hutt (whose work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, the DeCordova Museum and many others) with a commission for a temporary art installation in the Mifflin Room of the Brattle House called “Our Friend.” Inspired by the memories of Bollinger’s fellow students, Hutt designed and created silkscreened wooden tags with quotes from Bollinger’s friends printed on either side. The quotes are whimsical and factual, capturing the myriad details — ‘Our friend made Genoese cakes’ and ‘Our friend designed the national flag for Aruba’ — that make up an individual’s life.

‘There was always a tone of thoughtfulness, and some stretched-out sunset melancholy in her writing,’ said Kennedy, ‘but also humor, irony and mischief. Sarah was a source of comfort and pleasure to many, and at the end, her hospital visitors comprised a huge throng.’

The Sarah Bollinger memorial Our Friend hung in the Mifflin Room from February – June, 2014 and was generously donated to Bollinger’s son XK.”

— Cambridge Center for Adult Education, Cambridge, MA

Sarah Bollinger was a true friend who will live forever in our hearts:

Our friend made Genoese cakes  
Our friend wore Marimekko exclusively for 30 years    
Our friend carried a big purse   
Our friend liked to dance with fireflies 
Our friend liked to ride bikes    
Our friend had a house full of books 
Our friend grew a kiwi on her front porch
Our friend had fiery red hair 
Our friend flew to England with the brides wedding cake packed in her suitcase
Our friend designed the national flag for Aruba
Our friend named her dogs Alice Munro and Eleanor Wylie
Our friend liked to play matchmaker for her friends
Our friend threw elaborate dinner parities
Our friend cooked on all four burners
Our friend always had a book project in the works
Our friend had a sauna in the backyard