This latest illustration in gouache is of a woman named Toshiko D’Elia. I found her obituary in The New York Times and I was struck by her incredible life. She was born in Kyoto, Japan and after coming to the United States to teach deaf children, she began running marathons at the age of 44 and quickly began breaking records for her age group. She defeated cervical cancer and kept running until a few days before brain cancer took her life at 84.
I highly recommend reading her obituary. She was a woman that that was not a public celebrity, but certainly led an inspirational life worth remembering.
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