A ballet class at the age of 8 sparked Laura Bleiberg’s love of dance.
A girl in her neighborhood suggested they enroll, only to not like it.
“She dropped out, but I kept going,” Bleiberg would say decades later. “And I really loved it.”
That passion propelled Bleiberg to a distinguished career as an arts journalist – including 19 years with the Orange County Register – until she was robbed of her voice and her mobility by the degenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS.
There is no cure for ALS. On Sept. 19, it took Bleiberg’s life.
She died at home in Long Beach at the age of 65.
Before a bout with pneumonia in July tethered her to a breathing machine and her bed, she was still getting around in a specially equipped van loaned by the ALS Association and a power wheelchair with the assistance of her caregivers.
She communicated through an electronic device that vocalized words she spelled letter by letter with the blink of her blue eyes.
Her conversations about the arts, politics and everyday life with friends who visited regularly throughout her ordeal remained sophisticated, witty and incisive – the same qualities that defined her work as a writer and editor.
Bleiberg visited museums, the beach and her beloved El Dorado Park near the home she shared with her children, who slowed their own lives to tend to her.
“As much as she could, while she could, she liked to get out and do things,” said daughter Simone Rogers, who pivoted from full-time teacher to a teacher’s assistant to free up time.
Bleiberg belonged to a monthly movie club that discussed films and enjoyed music performed in her living room by a small group of friends, with her daughter on violin and son Ryan Rogers on cello.
Ryan Rogers recalled how his mom also spent time outdoors every day until bedridden: “She still loved to go outside and read in our garden.”
She polished off audiobooks. A close friend came to read to her, something…
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