A Celebration of the Life of Vijaya (Catherine) Claxton — 9 Dec 1947 – 23 Dec 2009 (Programme 22 Jan 2010)

Filed under Tributes and Expressions of appreciation

FRIDAY, 22 January 2010, 1 P.M.
Chapel of the Church Center for the United Nations

PRELUDE ON FLUTE – Upasana Young, UNICEF;

WELCOME – Nilima Silver, Programme Coordinator, Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations;

SONGS – “Vijaya” and song dedicated to the United Nations.

Words and music by Sri Chinmoy
Performed by the Choir of The Peace Meditation at the United Nations

Vijaya serving as Master of Ceremonies at the Poetry Reading Celebrating the
United Nations Year of the Dialogue Among Civilizations held at the United Nations, 29 March 2001.

SPEAKERS

Keith Claxton – Vijaya’s brother
Donna Fleming – Vijaya’s mother
Johnston S. Barkat – Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services
Andrei Terekhov – Executive Director, Office of Administration of Justice
Gordon H. Tapper – Chief, Facilities Management Service, DM (retired)
Brian Gorlick – Chief, Office of Staff Legal Assistance
Ramu Damodaran – Deputy Director, UN Outreach Division, DPI; President, UN Staff Recreation Council
Willard Hass – Chairperson, Steering Committee of the former Panel of Counsel; Vice President, U Thant Institute
Keith A. Beauchamp – Filmmaker
Bhikshuni Weisbrot – Vice-President, UNSRC Society of Writers; UNDP staff member

POSTLUDE ON ORGAN – Martin Garratt, DGACM

PEACE DOVE COOKIES AND FLOWERS

It was Vijaya’s custom always to have sweets in her office to welcome visitors.
Guests are invited to take a small gift of a peace dove cookie, along with a rose, at the end of the programme in honour of her tradition.

A Celebration of the Life of Vijaya Claxton
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SELECTED TRIBUTES TO VIJAYA

Below are excerpts from the generous outpouring of tributes received since Vijaya’s passing.

From Vijaya’s Family

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Please join me in celebrating my sister Vijaya’s life, a life that was always directed in a positive direction, a life that always wanted and sought purpose, a life that recognized and celebrated the accomplishments of others, a life that was always directed toward what we can do, not what we failed to do, a life well and fully spent.

KEITH CLAXTON Vijaya’s brother

Vijaya with her brother, Keith Claxton, above -left , in California;

and, in Dover, England, in July 2007, two months before Vijaya’s successful English Channel swim.

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Above: Vijaya with her mother, Donna Fleming.

“I am part of all that I have met, Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades Forever and forever when I move, How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breathe were life!”

These lines by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem, “Ulysses,” mirror memories of my child, Vijaya. Ulysses was a warrior, a leader, a traveler, a protector, an adventurer — one who loved life and confronted challenges with intelligence. So was it with Vijaya. Her joy, her honesty, her sense of justice lives on in those of us who loved her. Vijaya was beauty; her beauty still dazzles me. She was independent and strong, unfazed by the fight against the English Channel, against the many confrontations that she weathered in her much too short life.

“As though to breathe were life, to rust unburnished, not to shine in use”— I never asked Vijaya for her definition of life, but just breathing, a life unburnished and not shining, would not have made the grade.

DONNA FLEMING Vijaya’s mother

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