Louise Mitchell was a well known and highly successful workers' compensation claims examiner in Southern California for more than three decades.  She was known not only for her competence and ability as an examiner, but also for her incredible warmth, kindness, and generosity. 

Louise Marie Mitchell Skinner, as she was known to her personal friends and family, died on Saturday, October 17th, in her sleep.  She had been struggling with a heart condition and with the chemotherapy she was undergoing after a breast cancer surgery.  According to one of her friends, who had known Louise for 35 years, she passed quietly away with her cheek resting on her hands pressed together as one does in prayer.  She was 61 years old.

John Floyd, the senior partner of Floyd, Skeren & Kelley, gave a moving eulogy in honor of Louise as a veteran workers' compensation claims examiner. According to the feeling of Elisa Rosales, a ten-year-veteran hearing rep from Republic Indemnity in Encino, who attended the funeral with her friend Cheryle Lewis, John Floyd's testimonial about Louise as a human being and as a professional was absolutely "the best".  When I told John Floyd at the viewing of Louise's body, the day prior, that Louise had always treated me very well throughout all the professional transactions I did with her, and that she was "low maintenance", John replied, "She was low maintenance with class."

Yes, Louise Mitchell was a very high class person. The packed-to-the-rafters church and the outpouring of feeling from the pulpet and down the pews about Louise from friends, family and collegues was an overwhelming testimony to how much Louise Mitchell was universally loved.

Johnette White gave a heart-rending and tearful tribute and good-bye to her beloved colleague and friend before the maximum capacity congregation which listened to her in this elegant church that has an exquisite stained glass window panel of a Madonna With Child at the altar.  Johnette is presently employed in the work comp claims department at Berkshire Hathaway in Pasadena until November 17th.

Tyrone Bell, a hearing rep with the Law Offices of Floyd, Skeren & Kelley, paid tribute to Louise at the viewing of the body on Sunday, as did Rene Salisbury, who worked with Louise at ESIS back in the late 1970s and then again at Cambridge in the early years of this decade.  Val Kubiak, a supervisor at Intercare Insurance Services, and Kathy Garcia, a senior examiner at Liberty Mutual in Glendale, also were there to say good-bye.

The congregation roared with delight at the church service when a personal friend told how she knew that Louise's husband, Todd Skinner, loved Louise back some thirty-something years ago when she observed that Louise was driving Todd's very valuable and beloved sports car, which I think was a porsche, a coveted possession Todd never let anybody touch.  Someone else told how Todd had stood up in church just several months ago and had described his marriage to Louise as "33 wonderful years".  He had put an emphasis on the word wonderful. The friend who talked about Louise driving Todd's sports car exclaimed, "He LOOOOOVED her..." and she also got a kick out of how Louise could wear stelleto high heals that seemed as high as skyscrapers. Once Louise wore a pair with big red flames painted on the backs of the heels.

People who wanted to stand up and give personal testimonials about Louise were asked to limit their expression to 2 minutes.  But, nobody observed that request.  Many people went on and on about Louise for way more than 2 minutes!

I saw Michelle Simpson, a supervisor from AIMS in Valencia, at the viewing of the body. There were enormous bouquets with stargazers arranged like pin wheels leading up to the casket, where Louise lay peacefully.  She looked beautiful with her very dark hair wearing a tailored white suit. The interior of the casket was lined in white satin, and a pink rose was placed in her tiny hand.  The lower part of the casket was closed, and on top of the lid were very long stemmed yellow roses rising up and fanning out in the midst of ferns and greens.

The days were very warm for late October this past Sunday and Monday.  As I walked along the sidewalk in this cozy part of Pasadena, with the tiny quaint houses between trees and shrubbery in this modest neighborhood of mostly educated and affluent African Americans, I felt the deep emotion in the hymn that had been sung for Louise, "You Came Along And Rescued Me". 

I thought about my own life and how it will end. The reality of what the minister said resonated inside me as I drew breath, "Your heart is beating a funeral march to the grave.  Time is winding up..."

Readers may write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@adjustercom.com