I lost another friend....

bloodroot...all in bloom in the wetlands along the running road

I met Jeanette and her husband Bob during my stay in Italy 7 years ago. Her husband, a retired professor at the university which had this program, was there to learn a bit of Italian before he met up with relatives. Hopefully they knew English as he was having trouble learning the language. Jeanette was a physicist when she met Bob, a rarity among women. They married, moved to Michigan and raised 6 children, one of whom came on the trip with them. She started a editing business mainly working with graduate students at Wayne State. I don't think she ever gave up the editing. She would give me advice for free sending me e-mails if she noted especially egregious errors in my blog. Her personal bane: dangling modifiers.

We watched the deer cavort while sipping margaritas.

Yep, I heard about that one. We met up in person a few times, most recently when I was bicycling along the upper east coast of Michigan, she and Bob picked me up where I was camping in Alpena and took me out to dinner. They had a cottage about 20 miles north of there.

She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma about 5 years ago. She would go through periods of remission and occasionally get to live drug free but then the hideous cancer cells would come back. E-mails were coming less frequently, the latest back in January. Last night I received the sad news from her daughter that she had died  back in February. Her youngest son, a previously confirmed bachelor, rearranged his marriage having it in a hospice room so she could witness it just days before she died. She was 82.

She had many, many interests, many intersecting with mine. She was a vibrant, very intelligent person. We had many interesting conversations during our summer in Italy and continuing them on-line upon our return. I will miss her.

This is the week of rain and cold. It is my birthday week. To start it off, Shanna is taking me to lunch today. I look very much forward to this.