Mary

She was one of the first people who taught me how to work in a library when I first started as a part-time shelver back in 1993. She was in her late 40's, had been working circulation at this small branch for years and really knew how to manipulate the old Dynix software. She taught me a lot of the tricks I used over the years.

When my family moved away and her delinquent son became my roommate and friend she invited me to join her and her family for holidays. One of my favorite Thanksgivings was with her and Chris at a buffet place not long after she was on her own again. A whole of mediocre food was consumed but we laughed a lot.

Mary died a couple of days ago. It sucks, there isn't much to say other than how much it sucks. Chris wrote a nice obituary for her on his blog.