Mailbag: Community mourns Coastline editor

My wife and I were greatly saddened to learn of Cindy Frazier’s untimely passing. As we worked together on news items over the years or ran into each other at various events at the museum and elsewhere in town, I developed a great appreciation for Cindy as a talented journalist and a fine human being.

We discovered a surprising number of similar life experiences, having both been raised largely in Connecticut and educated at small liberal arts colleges in the northeast.

As Cindy publicly faced her disease in her column, her courage and resolve in dealing with what she undoubtedly knew to be a grim prognosis were an inspiration to everyone she touched. Steve Jobs’ passing in 2011 made it clear that fame and fortune weren’t enough to prevail in a battle with pancreatic cancer. Cindy’s passing showed that determination and fortitude don’t always prevail either.

Cindy was an important part of our local media scene and our community. Her talent, her diligence, her grace and her many contributions to a city that she plainly cherished will be remembered and missed by us all.

Matt Lawson

Laguna Beach

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Editor’s struggle a ‘monument to DimeStories’

An excited buzz came to DimeStories in the fall of 2011. Cindy Frazier was coming and she was actually reading! Cindy had been the city editor of the Coastline Pilot for six years and was one of the most influential journalistic voices in Laguna Beach as well as a published creative writer.

As I approached Salt Fine Art where the readings took place, I glimpsed a slight, bowed figure sitting in her car. Could this be the legendary local wordsmith? She joined the group 15 minutes later, silently slumping into a chair. Cindy read that day, softly and elegantly and wrote a column dedicated to DimeStories. How proud I was to see my story about the tribal man who wore only a vegetable praised in print.

Cindy continued to be a regular reader and won the contest for best essay read the month of March. This meant she would be performing at the celebrated Los Angeles Festival of Books held at USC in April. Her health was failing rapidly from pancreatic cancer by then and I prayed she’d be able to perform at the event.

Amy Wallen, founder of DimeStories USA, gathered a handful of would-be writers together in a Laguna country cottage to prep us for the Festival presentation. Cindy was barely able to lift herself through the front door. Her jaundiced skin was an apricot, yellowish orange. She rambled and shared catastrophic dreams, yet when she haltingly read her story about her mother, her voice was poignant and clear. By now everyone in the group wondered if she’d be able to read publicly in a few weeks.

A few days later Cindy entered the hospital for nine days of parenteral feeding; I assume with nutrients poured directly into her blood stream through a permanent catheter. Carrying a bag of nourishment in a refrigerated suitcase, she was ready for the battle to get to the book festival.

Cindy’s driver was unable to take her and she agreed to come with me knowing that I had several stops to make on the way back. She didn’t bring her wheelchair, so we walked slowly from the parking lot to the venue, dragging the case attached to her lifeline. We arrived early, and found a spot in the shade to prepare for her reading. And read she did! Crystal clear, she recited with deep, but subtle emotion, “Bleeding Hearts,” a piece about her mother’s death and metaphorically, flowers that bloom in the last place expected.

We struggled back to the parking lot and wilted in the early spring heat waiting for the valet to bring my car. I left her at her home eight hours after we had started. I apologized for our arduous journey, but she expressed her gratitude the next day.

“Thanks for making the reading possible. I feel like I climbed a mountain, but it was well worth the effort,” she told me.

Cindy’s front-page Coastline Pilot obituary was published June 29. In a section entitled, “She was a brave warrior,” colleague Chris Mattingley commented on Cindy attending the event.

“She was going no matter what, even though she was weak and it took all of her strength and will,” Mattingley said.

Cindy’s struggle is a monument to DimeStories, but so much more to courage and determination.

DimeStories readings will be heard at Salt Fine Art, 1492 S. Coast Hwy. at 5 p.m. Sunday. They are three-minute stories with a beginning, middle and end.

Ed Kaufman

Laguna Beach

Editor’s note: Kaufman is the host of Orange County DimeStories in Laguna Beach.