How do I begin to summarize my 1600 days with Bella Abzug? Bella was a veritable force of nature who, as Gloria Steinem and others have said, in a fair and just world would have occupied the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at some point in her career-at a minimum.

Surrounded with lifelong friends and new political allies in the global arena, she poured her life energy into reforming the United Nations from the bottom up. Bella was a believer in people power.

She pioneered the Women's Caucus-powerful methodology that charted a new path for NGOs to become more effective in influencing governments at the UN. Using the series of global summits in the 1990s from Rio to Rome, Bella believed the infusion of women power into these government gatherings was as critical as blood for hemophiliacs. She knew the power of the Women's Caucus, with hundreds of women from every part of the world, as it performed "CPR" on the UN, reviving an institution with passion, conviction and simple truths from people coping in a world that appeared at times to be suffering a nervous breakdown.

In her 70s, Bella was obsessed with getting the world off its collision course with nature and charting a healthy route for principle-centered politics. She argued the unbridled greed of TNC-driven globalization that threatened the essence of democratic governance. She challenged what the world counts as growth and the gross under-valuation by the market of women's work outside and inside families. She understood how the battle to control women's bodies and reproductive power was linked to rape, pillage and plundering of Earth. She understood how all forms of oppression are linked and never hesitated to champion the human rights of the most vulnerable. At the UN, Bella was the voice that never failed to speak up; she spoke up for the human rights of all people, including gays and lesbians.

After the Rio Earth Summit, Bella began her crusade to implement the precautionary principle by exposing the link between breast cancer and the increasingly toxic environment. Starting locally in New York as the head of the mayor's advisory commission on women, she organized public hearings. Three months later she detected her own breast cancer. Bella became a "poster child" for cancer prevention but never was defeated by the disease. She always said, "Whether you are one-breasted, or no breasted, this is a two-fisted fight against cancer," and proved it by co-convening the first World Conference on Breast Cancer last year in Canada. As she was increasingly unable to walk because of other illnesses, she became a stronger and louder activist for the rights of people with disabilities. As she aged, she redefined the role of the older person. She championed microcredit for macrochange.

A purple carpet leads all the way into her WEDO office-a regal setting for the majestic Bella. Simply as a citizen, she exuded power. Always armed with lipstick and color-coordinated outfits, Bella brandished her gender-bending style in cross-cultural settings-she was a very vocal New York feminist, a radical politician who also honored and enjoyed the religion and culture of her traditional Jewish upbringing. She was not a caricature. She may have practiced El Nino diplomacy, but the urgency of the times warranted it.

What did Bella want to accomplish in the months ahead as we approach the new millennium? Well, just ask me for her list; it was long but achievable.

Before her latest heart surgery, Bella told me she was not afraid to die; it was just that she loved living so much. She had lots left to do. Each day, she said, she would rise with such desire to make a difference, to help some cause, to touch someone. She made her last speech at the UN on March 3rd and the next evening entered the hospital for her final journey. I know I am privileged to have been one of the few people in the world to push Bella around; her wheelchair ensured that she always had a seat at any table. It will take years before I realize all the secrets she transmitted or find the locks to use the keys she left behind. But I am certain that I have been indelibly molded by that powerful gentle hand. And I am thankful to have held it as she kissed Earth farewell.

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