|
Claire Wagner passed away on December 30, 2024, from health complications following a stroke. She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Pierre Wagner; son, Jean Francois and daughter-in-law, Nadeg; granddaughters, Marie and Alyzee Wagner; nephew Marc-Henri Winter and his wife Béatrice, and their children: Simon, Anne-Fleur, and Remi; and sister, Daniele Huard. She is preceded in life by her father, Alfred Erbes, mother, Suzanne, and brother, Francois.
Born in Strasbourg, Alsace in 1934, Claire was a home economics professor and instructor for many years in France, North Africa, and the United States. An accomplished chef and baker, she taught French cooking to French, German, and American students.
After living in Manhattan, Long Island, and Annapolis, Claire and Pierre settled in Washington, DC. Claire was an artist-in-residence at the Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities Program (AHP) for more than 20 years, teaching patients, caregivers and staff at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) how to knit.
When Claire started at the AHP, she ran a weekly noontime knitting class in the central waiting room (now the AHP office) in the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Each week, she would come in with supplies and invite new people to learn to knit, as well as experienced knitters to improve upon their skills. Claire was known as “The Knitter” because she could solve any knitting problem that arose.
In 2015, the Arts and Humanities Program expanded beyond the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Claire started teaching knitting in different units in the hospital. Soon, word got around and Claire began meeting people all over MGUH to help with their knitting projects. She told me that on one of the units she visited, Claire and a few nurses found a way to hide out in an empty patient room to correct some stitches on the sly. She brought a lot of joy with her basket of needles and yarn.
Then, in 2020, the pandemic arrived and all AHP services went online.
Claire began teaching knitting virtually. She watched people as they knit. There would be 6-12 little squares on the Zoom screen and somehow Claire could see each person and all the tiny stitches they had created in whatever scarf, sweater, hat or glove they were making. She knew immediately if something had gone wrong and how to fix it. Claire somehow intuited the issues her students were having.
After Claire passed, one of her long-time online students from Boston, Katharine Karr, wrote a beautiful email that encapsulates Claire’s meaning to the people she taught:
“I found an unfinished mitten and thought about telling her, looking forward to her making fun of my unfinished pile of projects. Then, of course, lovingly helping and reminding me to do exactly what I needed.
“Oh no,” I remembered, as is the experience we all have when missing someone who is key to your happiness and life experience.
I wanted Claire to help me, even though I do know how to do it myself. If one is particularly lucky, being a knitter is being part of a community and connecting to a teacher who shows up, mistake after mistake, success after success. What great good fortune to have had Claire as my teacher, willing to wrangle unyielding technology to reach across the miles and plant herself firmly in my life. Her love for her students and her belief in the value of the knitted stitch done right guided us through the pandemic, through rough days and the loss of a beloved classmate. Claire knew how to show up for others, a fair lesson in life for us all. My heart aches, deeply, but I know her memory will be a blessing, stitch after stitch.”
In addition to her work at Georgetown, Claire volunteered at Restore Mass Ave, and helped the organization Re-Green Washington by planting trees along Embassy Row on Massachusetts Avenue. An avid gardener, Claire was instrumental in starting a community garden at Mitchell Park in Northwest D.C.
She was also a member of the Dupont Circle Village, an organization that supports members who decide to age in their own homes. She led a bi-weekly knitting group for Village members.
A loving wife, mother, and dedicated community member, Claire Wagner always will be in our hearts.
| 
