Erin Libby Cummings

Erin Libby Cummings
BRIGHTON, Mass. -- My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-
It gives a lovely light.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
Erin Libby Cummings, beloved daughter of Dennis and Donna Tyler Cummings and sister of Caitlin Cummings Thompson, died July 1, 2013, in Brighton, Mass. She was born June 5, 1978, in New York City and attended schools in Hoboken, N.J., South Portland and Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Erin was our shining star-a dancer, a writer, an actress, an artist, a lover of fashion and a hater of social injustice. As a child she used her baby-sitting money to join PETA and became a lifelong vegetarian at age 10. She fought to live her life with passion and uncompromising ideals, never backing down where she saw injustice. Erin was funny and charming and quick-witted, wise and intuitive. She was disciplined, fierce and determined in all her pursuits, even while struggling with pain we are only now beginning to comprehend.
Erin held many different jobs in her life. She was a member of the Ram Island Dance Company, having studied dance since the age of 5. She studied in Hoboken with Tracy Everitt and in Portland with Sheila Bellefleur, Lisa Hicks, Danny McCusker, and the late Barbara Goelman, among others. She was a beautiful dancer and a tender caretaker when working with children at East End Children's Workshop or with the elderly. She was a food server at several local establishments as well as in New York City-her birthplace and spiritual home. Recently she was making a new life for herself in Boston.
Erin was predeceased by grandparents Eugene (Tug) and Thelma Tyler of South Portland and Frank and Rose Cummings of New York City. Besides her parents, Erin leaves behind her sister and brother-in-law, Caitlin and Jeffrey Thompson and their four sons, as well as aunts and uncles and many cousins in New England, New York, New Jersey and Alabama.
There will be visiting hours from 5 to 8 p.m. on Monday, July 8 at Hobbs Funeral Home, 230 Cottage Road, South Portland and a funeral service at 11 a.m. at the funeral home on Tuesday, July 9, followed by interment at Bay View Cemetery in South Portland and then a reception at the Hobbs reception center.
Of all sad words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these: 'It might have been.'
--John Greenleaf Whittier
~
Those who will not slip beneath
the still surface on the well of grief
turning downward through its black water
to the place we cannot breathe
will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear,
nor find in the darkness glimmering
the small round coins
thrown by those who wished for something else.
-- David Whyte, The Well of Grief
Erin Libby
Cummings