I, too, am from a closed chapter and I would never wish that experience on anyone. I was a national volunteer at the time (a couple years after graduating) and was a part of the meeting at convention with the national Executive Board when the decision was made to close the chapter. No one can possibly understand the pain unless you experience it.
Re: the Gamma Phi Beta crying when she was carrying her flag... I can so understand that. To this day I do not subscribe to our magazine. I love DDD and everything our ideals represent. But looking through the magazine is depressing. It is always full of info about open chapters, but naturally nothing about my own.
I don't know how it is done in other sororities, but I wish there could be a way of still affirming the women from closed chapters other than reading their chapter name at convention or founder's day. Do any other sororities do anything to keep alive the experience/presence/sisterhood of closed chapters? When one of our chapters closes, there is a little mention of it in the magazine and that is it. I've always thought it would be nice if they would at least dedicate a page of the magazine to celebrating the sisterhood that occurred there for years or decades. Yes, chapters often close under negative circumstances. But that shouldn't negate all of the wonderful experiences other women have had in that chapter. It is hard to not feel like a leper when you are from a closed chapter.
Ok, climbing down off my soapbox now. As you can tell, I feel very passionately about this issue.
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