July 6, 2007

In Memory

It's not often that something shakes me enough that it render me speechless. A message from a friend this morning brought upon one of those rare occurrences.

When I was an undergraduate at BYU I became good friends with one of the graduate students in our department, Laurie. We had a "Michigan connection" that I so desperately needed at that time in my life. After she had graduated and left for BYU her parents had bought a house just outside of East Lansing -- where Michigan State University is located. She was familiar with the area around MSU so we would chat about the campus, the climate, etc. Laurie also ran the Horticulture program at the Senior Center in Provo. Once a week she would teach a class on various gardening topics, using students in our department as volunteers. After volunteering once with her, I was hooked. I spent a good part of the summer of 2001 helping her with the program -- even teaching the classes myself when she was unable to.

After she graduate with her M.S. degree she moved back East for a while. The last time I saw her was the summer of 2003 when I was working on my M.S. degree. She had since moved back to Utah and was teaching special education. We hadn't spoken to one another since C and I moved to ID last summer.

This mutual friend of ours sent me a message to let me know of Laurie's passing. A month ago she was killed in a rafting accident on the Green River in Utah.

I truly am saddened by this news. Laurie was the type of person we all should aspire to be and will be missed greatly.

1 comments:

Marz said...

oh that's so sad :(