Remembering Estelle Munro
Estelle Munro was a co-founder of Best Friends and an outstanding early fundraiser for the Sanctuary.
Estelle had polio as a child and used crutches all her life. She was literally the poster child for polio in her home country of Canada. But she had a great toughness of spirit and determination.
On one occasion, while she was sitting at a table fundraising for the Sanctuary, a man actually tried to steal the money from the collection jar that Estelle had collected for the animals. Because Estelle couldn’t easily stand, she grabbed hold of a pole to steady herself and grabbed the man’s collar with the other hand, scolding him until he dropped it. No one who saw it will ever forget that day. It became something of a legend.
If there were anything anyone thought Estelle couldn’t do because of her condition, it was never long before she cheerfully and gently proved them wrong.
But polio had affected her breathing, too. And so, despite having helped create Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, the day came when she had to leave it. The high elevation of the canyon was hard on her lungs. But being Estelle, she was perfectly cheerful about it. She announced that she would move to Hawaii and asked what she could do to help the animals from there.
She took on the job of responding to some of the 20,000 or so emails that Best Friends received every year — something she could easily do from afar. Always graceful, and always more interested in listening to others than in talking about herself, she was a star at that task.
And by all accounts, she was very happy in Hawaii. We like to think that the sun was just rising when she passed away. Estelle was one who fought darkness and who believed that the light would always break through. Her light certainly continues at Best Friends.
