There are a thousand parts and people that make the REGJB run. This blog has endeavored to be about the people who make up the REGJB and their lives, and sadly, their deaths. Last week one of the people who made the REGJB run and who touched the lives of countless lawyers, defendants and judges passed away. Her name was Anna Pineda and she worked for the Advocate Program. One of the people who knew her best attended her funeral Thursday night and sent us an email which we post in its entirety. Over the years we have written too many of these, but this is the best we have read. We are endeavoring to obtain permission to post the author's name.
UPDATE: Judge Jacqueline Woodward wrote the below remembrance of her friend.
If you are lucky, there are people in your life that make you feel better just being around them.
Anna Pineda was the smile in the courthouse that has been a constant for the past 25 years.
With her kindness and unbelievable patience, she guided thousands of defendants through
a maze of probationary requirements. She would explain over and over again to our
frustrated, angry and difficult clients the particulars of their program.
Anna perfected the lost art of listening.
Anna just had a way of guiding people to finding a solution to make the overwhelming
become doable. The courthouse will miss the woman who answered all her emails
within an hour, and who taught a myriad of young lawyers the meaning of the endless
maze of acronyms like PTD BOT ADI DUI BIP SCRAM.
Anna helped many new ASAs through their first VOP. She showed new PDs how to
avoid a VOP, and she taught County Court judges how to re-enroll a defendant into
Advocate for a second chance. She breathed life into second chances.
She loved her job and it showed. Anna was loved in our courthouse by all those who
knew her.
Anna was most importantly a mother who ran from the courthouse to Mast academy to
watch her daughters in a play or in sports. She was a wife who had a blast in a mud-run
just before she got sick, and Anna was so proud of her youngest child who blessed her and
her husband later in life. She was the bedrock of her family and she loved them completely.
Anna was also my friend from the days I started as a public defender, and I will miss
getting shushed in 5-2 for whispering in court or chatting too loudly in the jury room of 4-10.
I will miss her amazing smile and her stories of life, love and family.
She loved the Everglades, and vacations and dressing up and arts and crafts,
and we both shared a love of our favorite holiday- Halloween.
Anna loved her kids and her husband and she was so much fun to be around. She always
had a smile on her face, no matter how difficult the day went or no matter how
difficult the Advocate client was. I just don't know how she had the time to do it all!
The courthouse regulars will miss those moments when Ana caught their eye across a busy
courtroom with her warm and genuine smile. Anna's smile made a bad day good.
She made my life better and there is a hole in my heart.
Anna, thank you for making all of our lives better, God speed my friend.
An earlier edition misspelled Anna Pineda's name. The error was ours and we apologize to Anna's family.