Remembering Maia Astor-Drayton
Maia Astor-Drayton was a co-founder of Best Friends, devilishly quirky, and a hardworking fundraiser in the Sanctuary’s earliest days.
Maia grew up wealthy in a well-respected New England family. But she had no interest in wealth. She would much rather give it all away and help save the animals.
In her youth, Maia was an auburn-haired beauty who turned a lot of heads. She cared about her looks in those days; she didn’t want to wear glasses, even though she could barely see her hand in front of her face. But she wasn’t prissy. She was once seen chasing a strange man down the street, threatening him with her umbrella because he had really ticked her off. (We have no idea what the poor man did.)
Maia was an ardent practitioner of psychic readings and was once featured in the National Enquirer. She was a talented pianist and sometimes wrote and sang ditties — either to entertain the other co-founders or else during her visits to nursing homes or hospitals to cheer people up. She was kind but also had a spark of mischief in her eye. If you listened carefully to some of the words in those ditties, they could be a little dark!
Above all, though, Maia was a hard worker. When Best Friends was first starting, she had not only thrown away her comfortable life for the chance to rough it with the other co-founders in the desert, but she also drove around the Southwest, tirelessly putting out tin cans for coins to help the animals and then driving the whole loop again to pick them up. She did this from Colorado to California.
When Maia passed away, she left behind a unique legacy of dedication, caring, and of following the road less traveled.
