Loeber ‘was an angel on this earth’
In 2014, Gina Mercurio was looking to hire a teacher of restorative yoga — a slow-paced, therapeutic practice for people who have injuries or who simply need to wind down — when a colleague recommended Christine Loeber. Loeber showed up at Mercurio’s Petaluma, Calif., yoga studio for an interview, and after they sat and talked for two hours, Mercurio hired her on the spot. Yesterday, a day after Loeber was killed with two colleagues at the California veterans home where she worked, Mercurio told the Herald’s Marie Szaniszlo about the woman who used yoga — Loeber’s “side gig" — for her real passion: helping the walking wounded.
When she first walked in, she was like a beam of light. I just could tell she was an angel on this earth. She exuded joy. When a crisis happens and you’re looking for people to help, that was Christine. You could tell she was put here to help people.
We had a policy that if fewer than three people came to class, we would cancel. One night, only one person showed up — a veteran named Jim — and I said, “We’ll offer him a free class tomorrow.” But Christine told me, “No, you go home,” and she stayed with him for a full hour and a half just to make sure he felt like he was cared for.
She was an instructor for two workshops she started for veterans: One was for vets with PTSD; the other was for amputees. It was her baby. She brought the idea to me and said she saw a real need for it. We had close to 96 vets sign up for the workshops throughout the year. She was able to convince them that yoga wasn’t just something girly; it was a way to take charge of their mental state and reintegrate into civilian life when a lot of vets had a hard time just going into a coffee shop.
She said, “I just need to help these people.” She saw a place where care was lacking and just inserted herself to fill that void. She was an incredibly beautiful person. Having a light like her put out is just devastating. It’s heartbreakingly ironic that she gave her life to veterans, and then it was taken so tragically by one of them.