In this “Woven In Time” issue of ELYSIAN we remember Inspiring Women — (Left to right): TRUDE HELLER (1922-2021), Holocaust survivor who chose love, and happiness over hate. • FAITH WHITTLESEY (1939-2018), a trusted member of President Ronald Reagan’s inner circle, Whittlesey twice served as U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and, between those appointments, became the highest-ranking woman on his White House staff as Director of Public Liaison. • Phyllis DeLapp (1935-2022), Businesswoman and Journalist. • LORETTA SWIT (1937-2025), Emmy-winning actress, artist, and animal activist. • FAITH HOPE CONSOLO (1937-2018), Retail Broker and Real Estate Expert, known as the “Queen of Retail” and has long been recognized for her fashion savvy and design talents.
Women Inspiring Women . . .
The loss of inspiring women—those who lead with grace, wisdom, and determination—is a quiet earthquake in the soul of society. These women are not only the matriarchs of their families, but also the architects of progress in their communities and fields. When we lose them, it is more than the passing of individuals; it is the dimming of guiding lights, the silencing of voices that have shaped generations.
In boardrooms and labs, classrooms and courtrooms, these women have broken barriers and redefined what is possible. They have founded companies, pioneered research, led movements, and uplifted others along the way. Their courage to dream in spaces where they were often told they did not belong became the foundation for countless others to stand upon. Losing them means losing a wealth of experience, resilience, and vision that cannot easily be replaced.
At home, they are the hearts of families—mothers who raise children not only with love but with strength and intention, instilling values that ripple outward into the world. They are wives and partners who anchor their families through storms, balancing the personal and professional with quiet, often invisible mastery. Their absence leaves an ache that words fail to capture. A child loses a source of unconditional love. A partner loses a steadying presence. And a family loses its center.
The grief is complex because their impact is so far-reaching. Their work does not end with their lives; their legacies live on in those they mentored, taught, and loved. But that does not ease the sting of their passing. Society mourns not just what they were, but what more they could have been—ideas they didn’t get to share, lives they didn’t get to change, moments they didn’t get to savor.
To lose these women is to lose history, leadership, and deep emotional grounding. Their deaths remind us how rare and irreplaceable true visionaries are, especially those who nurtured others even as they built empires or shattered glass ceilings. In honoring their memory, we must carry their work forward, knowing the world is better for having had them—and poorer for having lost them. ■