Adele Kushner's letters to the editor have surprised me. I wondered where she found the courage to write informed letters that didn't follow popular local themes.

Expansions of wars, increased poverty and threats to the environment, locally, regionally or nationally, have brought her well-researched and reasonable letters of objection to The Times and other papers in Northeast Georgia. Now she's leaving us and moving to Friends House, a Quaker home in Baltimore near a daughter.

After I met Adele, she gave me a book she had written and published about her life. The book has Adele's own watercolor painting of beautiful flowers on the cover. She glories in nature, and one of her beautiful artworks won third place at a large members show at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center. It was broken glass glued to a board and called "The Old Blue Boat."

For years, she has been a resident of isolated woods in Banks County. In the book, she writes about her interesting life in New York, California, Atlanta, Metter and Banks County, but two sentences about a wild black bear searching for an area free of male-bear competition describes her outlook. The bear visited her house in Banks County, and then wandered off. She wrote, "I wished him well in his search. After all, he had as much right to the land as I did and fewer alternatives."

Adele has been an important voice here in Northeast Georgia. I regret her departure and join all her friends in wishing her well.

Alma Bowen
Gainesville