Aleksandra Sasha Maric was born on January 10th 1989 and on this day the world was brightened by a bundle of light and love. As many can attest to, Aleksandra was a truly special person because of how much she cared for others and the joy that she brought to those around her. She had an air of uniqueness and authenticity that you can’t fake, and you definitely can’t replace. She had a youthful exuberance for life, loved wildly, and was fiercely independent. She focused on finding joy in the small things in life, whether that is a mid-afternoon January skate, a sushi dinner with her mom, walks with her little sweetie Finn, great winners finds, or hang outs with her sister, brother, or friends. She loved her family above all, and spent a great deal of her life being there for, and helping out, friends and family.
Aleksandra and I met in our first month at university and spent the next four years building and strengthening our relationship. During those years Sasha was my roommate, my best friend, and eventually, my family. She was the type of person who would be open to crazy adventures one day and then turn around and have a five-hour conversation on virtues, life’s meaning, and self-reflection the next. She was the perfect balance between yin-yang, while also knowing exactly how to be the yin to someone’s yang. It was through our relationship that I learnt what it was like to truly, deeply love someone, and to feel that love and support back.
Being around Sasha was as healing as it was exciting. She knew how to be there for people, how to build them up, and how to get them to see past their challenges and hope for better days to come. She was the type of person who could connect with people regardless of age or background, because the way she connected with you was on that much deeper level. This, in addition to many other spectacular qualities that she had, is why I believe she was so special to so many people.
Sasha’s passing is nothing less than tragic. She was a bright, vibrant, adventurous loving soul who had much to offer this world. In my mind, she could have achieved anything that she wanted and it is difficult to know she now won’t. While undoubtedly this grief will be difficult to process for those who loved her, we must find some light in the dark. Sasha can teach us much about how to live life and how we connect with others. We can continue to learn from Sasha, whether it is looking to connect with people on a deeper level, placing more emphasis on valuing the relationships that we do have, finding peace in life’s small joys, or simply being a little more wild, vivacious, and free. Allowing her to influence our lives in a positive way in the future, we can thereby keep a little piece of her in our souls for the decades to come.
The above sentiments are just words on a page, and will never truly encapsulate the essence of Sash. Honestly, it’s just not something that is easily put into words because there’s a huge part of her which was beautifully intangible. Sasha was a lover of poetry, so I will leave off with a poem by Maya Angelou, who in much better words than I, can describe the grieving and healing process when we lose a great soul.
Aleks, Sasha, Sally-Jo: I love you. We love you. We miss you.
Aleksandra Sasha Maric
A beautiful soul and a brilliant mind
January 10, 1989 – September 22, 2021
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When Great Trees Fall
“When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always irregularly.
Spaces fill with a kind of
soothing, electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be.
Be, and be better.
For they existed.”
