The program for the candlelight service in the Jane Morgan Harris Chapel on the campus featured a photograph of Smith and her 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, on a beach vacation from her job at Richfield where the 41-year-old registered nurse coordinated care for residents.

A photograph of Tina Smith and daughter Brittany was on the cover of the program for her memorial service.

The cover featured poignant last thoughts posted on her Facebook site: “If I should die before I wake, God bless my friends and may I be remembered for my good heart and hopeless romantic ways.”

Those “romantic ways” may have led to her murder. Roanoke County Police say her 32-year-old boyfriend, Jeff Easley, is a suspect in her death. He, Smith and Brittany lived in a house close to Richfield where concerned coworkers found her body on Dec. 6.

Easley was arrested in San Francisco on Dec. 10, where he apparently fled with Brittany. Roanoke County detectives escorted her back from California Monday night and reunited her with her father, who lives in South Boston.

Two other detectives are scheduled to return Easley this week to Roanoke County. He faces charges of abducting Brittany and other crimes, including credit card fraud for using her mother’s card at the Salem Walmart the night of Dec. 3.

In the chapel Monday night the focus was not on Tina Smith’s death, but her life.

Staff who worked with her and handful of residents in wheelchairs grieved together in the chapel.

Family and other friends will have their opportunity to say goodbye to Smith on Saturday, Dec. 18, at a memorial service in South Boston.

As a freezing wind roared around the chapel, Chaplain Thomas C. Clay encouraged those who knew her to live past the ache Smith’s sudden death prompted, and reminded them, “God gave us the capacity to grieve – and for laughter.”

Coworker Christine Cook prefaced her thoughts with leading the group in applause and smiles in honor of Smith’s happy ways and compassionate, caring support for those with whom she worked.

The Richfield family united in their grief passed a light from one short red candle to the next, to a background of a few quiet sobs and one of Smith’s favorite recordings, Jason Crabb singing “I Sure Miss You.”

Former staff member Ruth Nash recalled Smith as “a great nurse, coworker and friend.” She said Smith was the a great resource, the person she would go to with questions about unusual patient conditions, and Smith always knew the answer.

“She was a good role model as a health professional, and as a friend, compassionate, caring and supportive…She would go out of her way to help,” Nash said, whether it be paying a phone fill for someone who couldn’t or staying up all night counseling a friend.

“Tina was so very proud to be part of the Richfield family,” Nash said. “The love in this room is a beautiful thing.”

Nash recalled that when Smith’s 16-year-old son, Tyler Matherly, died accidently from playing the “choking game” in August 2009, “Tina was diligent in starting campaigns and speaking at schools.”

And Nash cautioned Richfield friends not to be quick to pass judgment as they learn more details about Smith’s death in coming weeks.

Before leaving the chapel, coworkers wrote remembrances of Tina Smith on 3-by-5-inch index cards and tacked them onto two bulletin boards. Comments ranged from the humorous, such as “No muffin tops in heaven,” to recollections of how much Smith loved finding and collecting fossilized shark’s teeth at the beach.

Editor’s note: for more on Tina Smith and the ongoing investigation, see the Dec. 23 issue of the Salem Times-Register, and the Breaking News section on OurValley.org.

The pair turned out to be Matthew McDaniel on his horse Hampton, a long-legged half-quarter-horse, half-Percheron.

Matthew McDaniel on Hampton rides through the snow Feb. 2 in Salem on his way from Salem, Ore., to the United Nations in New York City to promote rights of Thailand's Akha people.

They were on Day 333, making their way from Salem, Ore., eventually to the United Nations to draw attention to the plight of the Akha hill people in Thailand. The goal of the ride across America is to create pressure on the Queen of Thailand to return thousands of acres of the people’s rice lands, McDaniel said.

On Tuesday, the pair planned to ride through Salem and go 15 miles to the other side of Roanoke before meeting up with the rest of the family who were parked in the lot of the Salem Walmart in a 40-foot-bus emblazoned with the sign “Ride for Freedom.” Smaller signs shouted “Freedom from Disease,” “Freedom from Child Trafficking,” and “Freedom from Land Grabs.”

Inside the bus were McDaniel’s wife, Michu, an Akha native from Thailand, and their five children who range from Ah Soh, who is 9, to baby Ah Pymm, 2-1/2. Michu teaches the children English and the Akha language.

Occasionally they take breaks from the road, such as the one they plan to do in Washington, D.C., so the kids can see the national landmarks. He and his horse also plan to protest the treatment of the Akha in front of the Thailand embassy.

The family also asks for contributions for their cause and to help them on their way. ”Hampton eats about 12 pounds of sweet feed a day,” McDaniel said, while stopping for a photograph in front of Marizel’s Flowers in Salem.

McDaniel and Hampton, his half-Percheron, half-quarter horse, amble down Main Street in Salem, Va., on their way to the United Nations in New York City. Photo by Meg Hibbert

“We put up anywhere we can park the bus and tie up Hampton,” he continued. Photos on McDaniel’s YouTube site show the bus and horse in the parking lot of the BP in Shawsville before heading on the next day to Salem. Hampton is tied nearby, warm in his blanket, McDaniel said, despite snow and ice crystals frosting the horse’s back and mane.

“He doesn’t mind snow,” McDaniel said, “but doesn’t like rain.”

According to McDaniel’s Facebook site, he has been working for Akha human rights since 1991, the same year he met members of the group while visiting Thailand. The Akha are about 600,000 people who own mountain rice farms in the higher elevations of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, China and Vietnam, McDaniel said.

Under occupation, he lists “activist.” His hobbies include horsemanship. Why a horse ride across America?

“Nobody in America knows who the Akha are, but they know horses,” McDaniel is quoted as saying in an article in the “Bristol Herald Courier” from Bristol, Va.

After Salem and Roanoke, McDaniel’s route was Lynchburg to Charlottesville to Washington, D.C., then through Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and into New York.

To learn more and to follow McDaniel and Hampton, check out akha.org.