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Obituary : Kia J. Bowman |
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 Kia Jean Bowman, wife of
Annie Lane Clarke, and daugh
ter of Dr. Shahab Momtazi and
Barbara
Bowman,
died
Saturday,
Jan. 28, at
Stanford
Medical
Center in
Palo Alto,
Calif., after a
brave battle
with lym
phoma.
Kia
Bowman (Momtazi as a
writer) was born March
12,1983 in New York City. A
nature lover from a young age,
she spent her happiest
Manhattan days smelling the
manure of Central Park. Kia
was a precocious child, witty,
sensitive and sensible, yet
unassuming and uncontrived.
She shunned airs and found
peace in simplicity.
Her impromptu poems at
pre-school age delighted
everyone and marked her as
gifted. Her maturity beyond
her age was seen in her under
standing that happiness came
from others, not acquisitions.
So her circle of friends grew
and deepened as they saw the
essence of her spirituality.
None who knew her would dis
agree.
Throughout her formal edu
cation she gravitated toward
the arts and literature, culmi
nating in her articles in City
Beat, San Diego (2004-2008),
her first job after graduation
from U.C. San Diego. They
charmed the reader in both
style and content, illuminating
how many (think nudists, for
example) view and value their
lifestyles and work. Then it
was a spell on a sustainable
farm in Mexico for insight into
the nature of work in that
community, before moving to
Massachusetts. It was her
ancestral summer home on
Lake Wentworth in New
Hampshire that drew Kia back
to the coast of her birth.
There, in her father's words,
she found and married a per
fect match, the beautiful, wise,
generous and delightful Annie
Clarke, whose large, gracious
and cohesive family absorbed
and nourished her completely.
Although she promised us
what she jokingly called "the
great American novel" to be
penned in the same home by
the lake, it was not to be and
she moved again, this time
accompanied by Destiny. Had
she lived long enough to wear
the mask of age, hers would
have been a wise, radiant and
comforting face.
In addition to her parents,
wife, and their dog Bella, Kia
was adored and will be missed
forever by her Aunts Coral
Bowman, Diane Dreeszen
Bowman and Noora Momtazi;
Uncles Craig Dreeszen and
Shahim Momtazi; Cousin
Jesselyn Dreeszen Bowman,
with whom she spent summers
at the Island, and family of in-
laws: Amy and Doug Clarke,
Emily and John Whitney, Ben
Clarke and Alyssa Salvo, Abby
Clarke and Kate Holdsworth,
Sam Clarke and Amanda
Abramson, and her favorite
nephews, Jake, Sam and
Cooper Whitney.
Kia's family invites friends
and family to join them for a
West Coast celebration of her
life on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 10
a.m. at the Lamp Liter Inn in
Visalia, Calif. An East Coast
celebration of Kia's life will be
held on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 2
p.m. at Second Congregational
Church in Greenfield, Mass.
The family asks that dona
tions in Kia's honor be made
to the Be The Match
Foundation, 3001 Broadway
St., N.E., Suite 601,
Minneapolis, MN, 55413
(www.marrow.org). More
urgently they ask, if you
haven't already registered as
a bone marrow donor, please
do so as soon as possible.
There is no doubt that Kia
wholeheartedly wants us each
to "Choose Life!"
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