In Memory

I knew Suzie from high school.  I was always better friends with her sister, but they were both part of my social circle for many years and their parents' house was like a second home to me.  (It still is, actually; the household's laid-back, welcoming vibe was in full force this summer at the 100th birthday bash.)

In any event, she was out running with two friends recently near her home, and was killed in a hit-and-run accident.  She died at the scene, the two friends were critically injured.  She leaves behind a husband and two small children, plus siblings, parents, and a centenarian grandmother.

Her loyalties ran deep and exclusive; her enthusiams could be strong and sudden, but enduring.  She perhaps embraced a certain eccentric geekiness, even reveled in it.  She could be very, very earnest; and very concerned with maintaining connections with people she cared about -- and yet sublimely indifferent to "public opinion" in general, if that makes sense.  Perhaps a typical ISFJ on the Meyers-Briggs charts in some ways, but very much herself.  

• A planned early morning bike ride. I stayed over, and we set two alarm clocks. Suzie's went off first. She rose out of bed, crossed the room, slammed off the alarm clock, and returned to bed - almost in one fluid movement. Then my alarm went off, and she was startled awake. We all got our bikes ready and gathered in the driveway to head east for sunrise at the beach.


• "Two peanuts walked down the road.  One was a salted!" 


• A boy in Suzie's grad program kept saying "I'm in love!" and whenever she asked about the object of his affections, he always said, "I'm in love -- with life!!"  (I got the sense that she was both pleased with this philosophy and intrigued by the mystery.)  It did not surprise me at all when she finally found out, weeks later, that he actually had a crush on her.  That was Suzie all over, sweet and magnetic, and utterly unaware of it.  But she had already met the man who would eventually become her husband, so the in-love-with-life guy (whoever he was) never stood a chance.  

RIP.  We will miss you.