I didn't know her either but I don't discount her history, what little we know. She was raised there, these were her friends. This was her life. Who she chose to socialize with. I think she was a multifaceted human being. The good. the bad, and the in between. But to paint her as an angel who was all giving and loving ignores her true history. People don't get charged twice with assault and end up in (a DV shelter or) L'sH without a history of trouble. Sugar coating her life won't bring her justice.
My opinion.
(modsnip)
Nobody is sugar coating anything that I've seen.
We don't know the circumstances of the assault charges.Assault could have been mutual girl-fighting and both parties can be arrested and charged. We don't know. It may have been one-sided, or it she may have been defending herself - we don't know.
I give her IMMENSE CREDIT and it says volumes about her character for being able to get herself together in spite of her 1) upbringing/background/home life and 2) the lifestyle she admittedly was involved in for a couple of very short years. She cleaned up pretty damned quickly which leads me -MY OPINION HERE- that she wasn't a drug user, or if so it was marginally. It's so incredibly insidious and an easy transition to become thoroughly involved in drugs and a person who is addicted does not usually succeed the first time around.
Yes, I do go by appearances sometimes. What strikes me hugely is she doesn't look "used" like so many girls and women do when regular drug users. I've seen many 19 year olds who look like hard 30 and frankly, she could pass for 16 in her photos. Out of the dozens of photos of her I've seen two where she looks less-than-fresh, but never more than that. She may have been hung-over, who knows.
If you've read any of her writings - they are NOTHING like those of her contemporaries that are profanity laden and phonetically based idiocy all talking about nasty sex. Of the several dozen pictures of herself out there - not one that I've seen is a stupid booty picture, no duck lips, no chest thrusting... all are like I would like to see of my daughter if I had one. I've seen nothing to indicate the all encompassing self-involvement of some of her contemporaries. I'm referring to the friend base that you are referencing when you insist that 'she's no angel or lily white'.
I've had my share of party years and lots of booze and lots of coke (late 1970s early 80s) and see the difference in my own pics.
I could go on much longer on why I believe she deserves all the good things said about her because I believe them to be true. I'm fully aware of when someone dies, people tend to be vocal about the goodness and perhaps embellish, but in this case, I don't believe there is or was a need to embellish her innate "goodness" for lack of a better word.
Sheesh.
My Opinion.