Sudden Loss
Noi Chudnoff, owner of Go Mama Go! and supporter of gay community, dies
Noi Chudnoff, owner of Go Mama Go!, a gift shop at 1809 14th St. NW, died from massive head trauma on Tuesday, Nov. 6, after a fall at Holy Cross Hospital, in Silver Spring, Md., according to friend Jeffrey Johnson.
A memorial service is scheduled for this Saturday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m. at the Source Theater, 1835 14th St. NW.
Noi Chudnoff (right) at recent Ganymede Arts Festival
According to Johnson, artistic director at Ganymede Arts, Chudnoff had been diagnosed with colon cancer earlier and was at the hospital for a scheduled surgery on Monday, Nov. 5.
”Apparently the nurses came in on Monday morning to prepare her for surgery, and they helped her out of the bed and she blacked out, fell, and hit her head really hard,” Johnson says, adding that details of the incident remain unknown.
”The head trauma caused a massive brain hemorrhage, and she was taken to emergency room and pronounced brain dead,” Johnson continues. ”They had also discovered small hemorrhages in her brain and that she had been having them for a long time.”
The native of Bangkok was beloved and well known by Washington’s gay community for her involvement and continued support of various GLBT-related organizations including, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Whitman-Walker Clinic, Ganymede Arts, and others.
Chudnoff was kept on life support until Tuesday, Nov. 6. Her son, Nissim Chudnoff, flew to Washington from New Mexico to see her the day before.
An in-depth story on Chudnoff will appear in the Nov. 15 issue of Metro Weekly.
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