To those who may decry Maine legislators as out-of-touch, please stop, and think about Abby Holman.

The freshman legislator from Fayette – a wholly underwhelming way to describe her – Holman was killed tragically this past weekend while skiing at Sugarloaf, USA. The accident silenced a rising voice in Maine government, one which commanded deep respect from the moment she entered the State House.

This respect was earned. It started from her roots as a daughter of Lewiston and the W.S. Libbey Co. textile mill, to her teaching high school history in Wales. From her work as a key aide to Gov. John McKernan and Sen. Olympia Snowe, and to her vocal championing of one of Maine’s signature industries, forestry products.

And it came from her personal travails, and triumph: raising a young daughter alone following the sudden, and shocking, death of her husband, the environmental journalist Andrew Weegar, in an accident on their Fayette farm

Holman had walked miles in many Mainers’ moccasins, which makes her death so devastating.

As a representative, Holman possessed many fine qualities: intelligence, resoluteness and high ethical standards. When becoming embroiled in a dispute over committee assignments at the start of this legislative session – she was denied a spot on the Agriculture committee, despite her request – she refused to play political games.

“Many constituents, farmers, and bipartisan legislators are disappointed because I’m not serving on the Agriculture Committee,” Holman wrote to this newspaper. “I assure them I will continue to focus on the issues facing rural Maine. My passion has only grown stronger.”

Using adversity as inspiration was a Holman hallmark. She displayed bravery in the face of personal misfortune, and channeled her heartache into action with the most selfless of goals: public service.

She was, in short, the kind of representative every town in Maine would have been proud to call its own.

This sentiment was crystallized by the outpouring of grief in the days following her death. Holman has been recalled by dozens as caring and compassionate, a diligent worker who valued honesty and would fiercely defend the content of her convictions.

The Legislature’s remembrance ceremony for Holman on Tuesday was a worthy, solemn requiem for a friend. In eulogizing her, Rep. Josh Tardy, R-Newport, fittingly invoked President Abraham Lincoln, who said in the end, it’s not years of life, but the life in years, that truly matter.

Her accomplishments were truly numerous, more than any special election can replace. Yet it’s the Olympian heights she could have attained, in Augusta and perhaps beyond, that are even more mournful.

In Holman’s passing, Maine lost a dedicated public servant, and also a certain future political leader, whose intellect and experience would have made this state a better place for all.