West Topsham woman "had a way of bringing happiness" to others
Elizabeth "Liza" Anne Johnson Amaden passed away on December 7, 2020, at the age of 77. Liza was raised by Muriel and Lawrence Johnson in New Hope, Pa., with her brother Ron and sisters Audrey and Kathy, who knew her as "Betsy." The sisters were great fans of "American Bandstand" and often had living room dance parties when they got home from school. Ski trips inspired a love of Vermont, and Liza moved to the Green Mountains in the mid-1960s; here, she married dairy farmer Jim Ameden and raised three children — Will, Don and Josie — on a farm in Londonderry. Liza helped to bring a whole new set of ideas to a historic multigenerational dairy, introducing a thriving vegetable business, occasional veganism to the family table, plastic bag recycling and enthusiastic skinny-dipping. She loved her old motorcycle, haying the fields and milking cows. Liza also brought music to the farm. She played guitar and sang, both to her family and at the local church. The three generations that have followed her have absorbed her love of music and singing together at family gatherings. Always a good teacher, Liza was a cofounder and teacher at the Green Mountains Community School House, an alternative elementary school, and also taught at the East Hill Farm School. She was involved in passionate advocacy for nuclear weapon disarmament, which included local campaigning and spearheading a group of Vermonters to march at the 1982 nuclear disarmament rally in New York City. In the mid-'80s, feeling a strong connection with the Indigenous peoples of Central America, Liza went back to school and graduated from Skidmore College's "University Without Walls Program" with a degree in Spanish and Latin American studies. She spent two years living with families in Guatemala and Costa Rica, learning about their life and culture. In the early-'90s, Jim and Liza chose different roads to follow and parted ways as lifelong friends and co-parents as Liza moved to Iowa to study transcendental meditation, and then to California to earn a licence as a hatha yoga instructor. She later returned to the East Coast and Massachusetts, where she worked at Maharishi Veda Health Center and contributed to the growth of Gaia Herbs, where she met her partner Mark Dello Russo. As farm manager at Gaia Herbs, Liza oversaw the company’s move to Asheville, N.C., where she and Mark lived for a couple years…
West Topsham woman "had a way of bringing happiness" to others
Elizabeth "Liza" Anne Johnson Amaden passed away on December 7, 2020, at the age of 77. Liza was raised by Muriel and Lawrence Johnson in New Hope, Pa., with her brother Ron and sisters Audrey and Kathy, who knew her as "Betsy." The sisters were great fans of "American Bandstand" and often had living room dance parties when they got home from school. Ski trips inspired a love of Vermont, and Liza moved to the Green Mountains in the mid-1960s; here, she married dairy farmer Jim Ameden and raised three children — Will, Don and Josie — on a farm in Londonderry. Liza helped to bring a whole new set of ideas to a historic multigenerational dairy, introducing a thriving vegetable business, occasional veganism to the family table, plastic bag recycling and enthusiastic skinny-dipping. She loved her old motorcycle, haying the fields and milking cows. Liza also brought music to the farm. She played guitar and sang, both to her family and at the local church. The three generations that have followed her have absorbed her love of music and singing together at family gatherings. Always a good teacher, Liza was a cofounder and teacher at the Green Mountains Community School House, an alternative elementary school, and also taught at the East Hill Farm School. She was involved in passionate advocacy for nuclear weapon disarmament, which included local campaigning and spearheading a group of Vermonters to march at the 1982 nuclear disarmament rally in New York City. In the mid-'80s, feeling a strong connection with the Indigenous peoples of Central America, Liza went back to school and graduated from Skidmore College's "University Without Walls Program" with a degree in Spanish and Latin American studies. She spent two years living with families in Guatemala and Costa Rica, learning about their life and culture. In the early-'90s, Jim and Liza chose different roads to follow and parted ways as lifelong friends and co-parents as Liza moved to Iowa to study transcendental meditation, and then to California to earn a licence as a hatha yoga instructor. She later returned to the East Coast and Massachusetts, where she worked at Maharishi Veda Health Center and contributed to the growth of Gaia Herbs, where she met her partner Mark Dello Russo. As farm manager at Gaia Herbs, Liza oversaw the company’s move to Asheville, N.C., where she and Mark lived for a couple years…