A DISPLAY AT Agatha Cavaiani’s funeral this week, showing a number of the Bouquets and Barbs items she submitted over the years. (Submitted photo)

Bouquet: Word came Sunday that Agatha Cavaiani of Kingsford, a frequent contributor to The Daily News’ Opinion page, had died at age 94.

While Agatha would occasionally file a Letter to the Editor, her most regular submissions over the years were for Bouquets and Barbs — sometimes a Barb but the vast majority Bouquets. Agatha had a special knack for noticing good people or activities, then making sure they got a moment to shine in print in this forum. It might be a band concert, the Dickinson County Fair, parades, a presentation she attended, snowplow drivers for quickly clearing the streets after a winter storm. This past August, she praised a yard sale that offered visitors water and grilled burgers and hot dogs for free. “The best hot dogs and burgers with cheese we had for a long time,” Agatha wrote, calling those running the yard sale “just another example of the great community we live in.”

That was a common theme in Agatha’s notes: “We live in a great community.” You could tell she truly believed it — and wanted others to as well.

Agatha must have gotten around a lot, because she’d mention a wide range of activities she attended: various holiday celebrations or memorials, public education programs, meals, farmers markets, festivals, Aurora’s centennial in 2017, other events. So finding out she turned 94 in February was a surprise.

She would personally bring her items into The Daily News office, carefully written in cursive on spiral notebook paper, signed with “please do not change” but also “thanks so much” and often a second postscript such as “stay safe & happy” or once, when she had two submissions, “must be on a writing roll.”

I never managed to meet her in person, as she usually would come in during the mornings and I in the afternoons. But it would make me smile to see that simple notebook sheet with her familiar handwriting set on my keyboard, to be typed in for the Saturday newspaper.

At a time when so much focus seems to be on the negative, on complaints, grievances and shortcomings, Agatha Cavaiani would regularly remind us you can instead highlight what’s going right, can recognize people acting with courtesy and grace. She’d take the time to write on how strangers helped her when her vehicle broke down, how local college and high school students let her and a companion step ahead in line at a fast-food restaurant, even carrying their food to their table. On the better human moments she witnessed, lest we forget we’re capable of such behavior.

Perhaps someone else will decide to step into the role Agatha played in promoting — or sometimes criticizing — our area communities. But Agatha’s dedication will not be easily replaced. We’ll miss her here at The Daily News.

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