by David Anderson

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Adrienne was born Katy Bridges in Paris in 1960 – that was the year the temperature dropped a little further on the cold war and 100k people joined ban the bomb rally in London – Joan Baez, folk singer and activist, released her debut album. It began the decade of the swinging 60’s, counter culture, and social revolution - she was too young to know but must have got it by osmosis. 

       Then to England and aged three her Mum Margaret died and looking back, this may have been the unhealable wound that became mirrored in her passion to heal and restore Gaia - Mother Earth.
       Her first schools in London - Connaught House and then Lady Eden school for girls – where the petite Adrienne wore white gloves and a boater hat and was required to curtsy to the head mistress – very hard to imagine our woodland warrior bowing to authority.
       When Adrienne was 13 the family moved to the south of France - and lived what sounded like a movie set life on the French Riviera in a house at the edge of the sea and managed to have water skiing lessons before school. Its easy to imagine the dusty heat, smell of lavender and the pleasure of Provence getting under her skin.
       As the oldest child she was the organiser, siblings did as they were told when Katie was in charge… but there was a sense of mischief particularly putting her siblings up to no good - in Lulu’s case one time getting her to eat a giant ant by feigning her own ant consumption or making ‘dares’ to jump off the highest rock in the bay or seeing who could wait the longest on the railway track listening to the sound of the approaching train.
       This mischievousness remained to the end of her life when after 3 months of not eating she started to eat again - and her friend Lex was visiting and they were lying on the bed together back to back eating ice cream of all things - Lex turned and saw Adrienne motionless, head lolled back and tongue hanging out –and after an agonising moment for Lex, Adrienne open her eyes and said ‘fooled you’! She came up with some extraordinary phrases and ideas in those final stages.
       The family returned to London and Adrienne’s rebellious streak became even more pronounced. So much so that at 15 she had moved out of the family home and into her own flat. These were no doubt trying times for all but to her peers, having your own pad, was pretty cool! By 18 she was on her way to America to one of its most prestigious universities, MIT in Boston, to study microbiology - where her father had also studied. The family had moved to Washington DC. And Tory had followed on to study English at Harvard and remembered her own friends being in awe of Adrienne, the scientist, , this flamboyant, colourful dresser, already with her own allotment and part of a food co-op and on the side was an avant-garde photographer experimenting with printing techniques.
       After MIT – then travelling to Australia and back to England and doing a masters in History and Philosophy of Science at Kings College. And then work for cancer research, ironically working on a drug that some 25 years later she would be taking herself for breast cancer. She knew the science of her illness.
       Then to a job with the Economist, and various jobs in publishing as writer, sub-editor and editor. This was a time of parties and dinner parties – a world of debate, discussion, and argument – the birth of the ‘women's dinner club’ with Adrienne and her close group of girl friends as Charlotte Du Cann put it in her excellent blog and tribute …. 'we came together as intelligent female beings, rather than ninnies to share world views – there was one rule - no talking about boyfriends or holidays.' You can read the full blog here:

http://charlotteducann.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/swimming-for-adrienne.html
       Later the three sisters started a regular lunchtime rendezvous that was to last many years at ‘Fresh and Wild’ in Clapham where they also chewed over shared and unshared history and de-constructed family life.
       Later still in the Lewes years she was also to become part of another women’s group nicknamed ‘The Yodellers’ – which had started in the mountains of Innsbruck at a Subud* congress – and for 7 years of monthly meetings explored the spiritual and psychological depths.

While travelling in Turkey in 1980 she had an epiphany - in her own words “For a few brief minutes I experienced oneness. The wind in the trees, the birdsong, and everything in between, it was all one, all was blissful unity. Tears poured from my eyes as my heart melted.” Back in England she looked for a community with which she could share this experience.

       In 1981 she found and joined Subud [Susila Budhi Dharma], a fledgling spiritual organization, and took the family and friends a little by surprise as, with the usual vigour, she fully embraced the new path with its Indonesian trappings – and at first it appeared to take a little of the sharpness off the radical edge – doing some odd things, fasting, wearing long skirts and changing her name. But, as Dirk put it, it was not that she became ‘soft’ through the process but rather that it seemed to allow her to reveal her vulnerability and she felt accepted.
       Not long after joining Subud Adrienne travelled to Australia – she must have loved that powerful land of flat top mountain and red earth. While there she did good work helping to transform the national Subud publication as well as doing a little work for the Sydney Morning Herald.
       As well as Subud there were to be other approaches to personal development and striving for greater consciousness. Dirk and Adrienne drew a lot of strength from their work with POV [Psychology of Vision] and continued with the work right to the end.
       Back to history. She became chair of central London Subud group in the late 80’s and was one of the prime drivers to Subud acquiring the Amadeus Centre in Maida Vale – which has become one of the most successful Subud venues. Adrienne met Dirk through the Subud community in central London and they eventually married in 1989 – Sophia and Anna were born in London and then by 1991 they moved to Bassets Oast near Tunbridge Wells. It was here that the Orchard Open School started in the living room. It was a great idea but the extra sticky red tape and a few pedagogical differences made for an interesting time [so interesting that I imagine Dirk had to retire occasionally to play a bagpipe or two]. ‘Opportunities’, as the Americans say, reappeared when a few of us naively but enthusiastically decided to set up the Lewes New School which was eventually born in 2000. Adrienne in time became the school manager and inspired many families to attend.
       In between there had been Stoneywood Cottage; Dirk and Adrienne became the cool versions of Richard Briars & Felicity Kendal and it was a ‘Good Life’ with wonderful home cooking, hot tubs and aerial runways and the fairy drenched bluebell wood – she got deeper into all things country – this is where the love of bees started and she found they loved her back and were the sticky stuff of the universe. By now we also have Adam and Rose in the family.
       In 2001 the family moved to Lewes. Her deep passion for nature was beginning to cause her pain as she realised what was happening to the planet and after encountering Mark Lynas and Rob Hopkins she began campaigning to get Lewes as the second ‘transition town’ in the country and it was duly launched in 2007.
       The activism side got going too: storming the Houses of Parliament, getting arrested outside Boots on the tax evasion demo or occupying St Paul's. Some times all this activity came at a price - sometimes off on trips, sometimes busy on computer, researching and writing. When she was away, for Dirk it felt, as it does now, that the heart had gone out of the family.
       It has been extraordinary reading the through the web site ‘What Matters Now’, and realising although I felt I knew Adrienne and I knew the headings – Transition, Permaculture, bees, activism, the woods, the school, Subud – the depth of engagement, passion and the connection with different circles of people and her impact on them was a revelation. The comments there are as much her eulogy.
       For me, like many, Adrienne became my conscience when it came to ecology – a reference point like other beacons I have adopted for inspiration or moral compass - and a quick mental calculation – ‘What would Adrienne do?’ and of course I couldn’t always live up to it. In order to become that sort of beacon you need to be extreme, uncompromising and that can come at a price and like Lewes’s own revolutionary, Tom Paine, sometimes leaving a few noses askew or some risen hackles. But that’s what you get when you stand up to be counted.
       She was also clear there was to be no sainthood, no myths spun – sometimes life was hard and relationships not always easy. Although there were joyful episodes towards the end of the dying process the final stages of death were hard, or for us on the outside, it certainly appeared to be. Death like nature can appear cruel and ugly and we should not shy away from that. Adrienne was not afraid to name things – she fully embraced the truth, warts and all and would want her life seen in the same way but in that real and stark reality is true beauty.
       I met with Adrienne just after the op for a tumour on the brain and we sat in St Johns Church yard on a warm May day when there was still hope and miracles and I said I was so glad the procedure went well as I was not ready for an Adrienne shaped hole in my life and the weeks and months went by and now for all of us there is a hole.
       Adrienne trusted that that her children would each find their own way, and I know when the sadness has diminished Sophia, Anna, Rose and Adam will go out into their lives braver, more conscious, wiser human beings having learnt about life and death from their courageous mum.
       To Dirk, and her siblings - Lulu, Tory, Bill, Mark, and Jamie and her mother Jessica we honour your wife, sister and daughter and give thanks for and celebrate her life.