Sardarni Sahiba Nav Jiwan Kaur Khalsa
June 6, 1952 – August 12, 2011
On Friday, August 12, 2011 Sardarni Sahiba Nav Jiwan Kaur Khalsa of Espanola, New Mexico, died after a long illness. We will miss her generous heart and strong, clear spirit. She is survived by her children Abinashi Singh and Guru Parkash Kaur, daughter in-law Sat Siri Kaur, sister Anne and brother Jim.
We honor her memory in the words of her family and friends.
Her elder sister Anne describes early signs of Nav Jiwan Kaur’s spirit. “In our classically WASP 1950’s New England family there were rules that we followed because we were told to, whether they made sense to us or not.
Nav Jiwan Kaur knew what made sense to her and acted accordingly. If she wanted something in the high cupboard in the kitchen she took matters into her own hands. Rather than waiting for a grownup, she made a ladder of the lower drawers and climbed them to reach her goal. This was at four years old.”
SS Hari Charn Kaur and SS Sarb Sarong Kaur speak of the friendship, strength, dignity, courage and spirit that Nav Jiwan Kaur conveyed as a sister, wife, and mother. Once, Hari Charn Kaur heard the Siri Singh Sahib speak of Nav Jiwan Kaur as “a genuine Khalsa woman.”
SS Shanti Shanti Kaur says, “What I hold most dear about Nav Jiwan Kaur is how authentic she was. She made being a spiritual woman real, practical and true. No embellishment, just what is. One day toward the end of her illness she said, ‘When I die don’t use any mamby-pamby words like, ‘transition’ or ‘left her body’ or ‘passed away’ and tell other people not to use those words, either. Say I died. I know that I don’t really die, that my soul lives forever; I don’t need anyone reminding me of that. I just don’t want people attempting to get around the fact of death. It is okay to use the words. So use the words: death, died.’ Could she be any more straightforward?”
Her children and family send their deep appreciation to all the people who served and supported Nav Jiwan Kaur over the course of her illness.