Miriam
My very dear friend Miriam died very unexpectedly last Sunday morning. She would have been 86 this month, and had just agreed last week to chair the Antiques Show committee for 2008-2010. She was an incredible, vital, clever, warm person, and one of the first people I met here that I really felt was a friend. She was forward-thinking; one of the older women in the Woman's Club who understood the need for us to have a website, use email for announcements, sending the newsletter, etc. She had a great laugh and a beautiful smile. When she went out she would take her drivers license, credit card and keys -- if someone didn't take her credit card she didn't shop there. Although it's common here for a death notice to have a photo from when the deceased was young and vital, the photo her husband submitted showed her as she was, which was young and vital inside her beautiful 85-year old self.
Miriam never treated me like she was a mother-substitute, which many of the older women do; she was always a friend and colleague. Age as a barrier to forming real friendships didn't occur to her. She worked hard, played hard, kept up, and was someone that everyone thought of with great love and respect. She will be very sadly missed by many people.
Immortality is not living forever; it's living so that when you are gone people still think about you. Miriam will be remembered by all who knew her as someone who made the most of her life. If I am half as loved at the end of my life as Miriam is, I will consider it a life well lived.
Miriam never treated me like she was a mother-substitute, which many of the older women do; she was always a friend and colleague. Age as a barrier to forming real friendships didn't occur to her. She worked hard, played hard, kept up, and was someone that everyone thought of with great love and respect. She will be very sadly missed by many people.
Immortality is not living forever; it's living so that when you are gone people still think about you. Miriam will be remembered by all who knew her as someone who made the most of her life. If I am half as loved at the end of my life as Miriam is, I will consider it a life well lived.