Three Dartmouth students joined the family and high school friends of Lindsay Della Serra '06 to mourn her loss at a somber, open-casket wake Dec. 4 in New Jersey. Della Serra succumbed to lymphoma at her home in Cranford, N.J., on Nov. 30.
Friends and relatives remember Della Serra, a Spanish and history double major, as caring, down-to-earth and driven. At Dartmouth, Della Serra was a tutor, a mentor to middle school girls in Vermont, a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority and a College Republican.
"Most people have their day planned out. Lindsay had her entire life planned out," said Gwen Barnes '06, one of Della Serra's best friends.
Della Serra, the valedictorian of her Cranford High School class, had known she wanted to attend Dartmouth since middle school. During eighth grade, her teacher asked students to write letters to their future selves, to be mailed back to them during their senior years of high school.
The first line of Della Serra's letter read, "So, did you get into Dartmouth?" Della Serra received her eighth grade letter on the same day she received her Dartmouth acceptance.
News of Della Serra's passing came as a shock to many people as she only told close friends about her illness.
Barnes was with Della Serra when she received her lymphoma diagnosis at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center during Winter term of her sophomore year. Aside from Barnes, Della Serra only told two other close friends at Dartmouth about her cancer. She still hoped to beat the disease and didn't want people to worry or act differently toward her, Barnes said. When asked why Della Serra left school, Barnes told others that Della Serra had mononucleosis.
Throughout her illness, Barnes said Della Serra continually worried about being a burden on people and always maintained a positive attitude.
"Lindsay was the most selfless person I've ever known," Barnes said.
Della Serra was always concerned about the wellbeing of others, and not just through her volunteer activities, Barnes said, recalling that on her own 20th birthday, Della Serra got into a minor car accident.
"She didn't tell me about it until two days later, because she didn't want to ruin my birthday," Barnes said.
An aficionado of Jack Kerouac and Sylvia Plath, Della Serra "liked artsy things," according to friend and senior-year prom date Keith Louie, a junior at Johns Hopkins University. She often frequented Van Gogh's Ear, an eclectic cafe in her hometown, to have intimate one-on-one chats with her friends, he said.
"She was very matter-of-fact, and not afraid to have a meaningful discussion," said Kyle Benn, a close friend who is now a junior at the University of Richmond. "If there was something important or serious or difficult to talk about, she was usually best for that."
Della Serra's mother Diane expressed pride in her daughter's accomplishments in an interview with the Newark Star-Ledger.
"For all she sacrificed in high school to get where she got, Lindsay had a ball in college," Diane Della Serra said. "She had a ball, and she still did great."
Her professors agreed. History professor Walter Simons, whose Medieval Europe course Della Serra took freshman year, remembered her as "quite a brain."
"She was such a delight, always fun to have in class, especially in discussions," Simons said.
Della Serra had applied to be history professor Steven Ericson's Presidential Scholar research assistant last spring, and was one of two chosen out of several applicants. She was planning to work on a project related to the Russo-Japanese war, and Ericson said he had been looking forward to working with her next term.
Even though Della Serra's plans to graduate from Dartmouth and become a lawyer were tragically cut short, Donna Kardos, a junior at the College of New Jersey who knew Della Serra since first grade, said she felt Della Serra had a sense of fulfillment in her life.
"She got into the Ivy League school of her choice. She had so much fun there, and I'm really happy that she was able to experience those things," Kardos said.
Della Serra suffered from lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the lymphatic system, which helps maintain fluid balance within the body and protects the body against disease. Della Serra's parents asked that donations be made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in lieu of flowers.
