Sad

In the course of a life, one's path crosses with many others.

From 1991 until 2004, I worked for the California State University system. During that time, I met many wonderful people, and remain friends with many of them today. Some of them are my very best friends.

Because I worked for the Office of Governmental Affairs, my office was in Sacramento. The main Chancellor's Office was in Long Beach, as it is today. Because of the nature of my job, I communicated with folks in the CO, as we called it, very often. At first, most of that communication was by telephone. Later on, most of it was by e-mail. Part of my job was to manage the bill analysis process, which meant that I needed to be in regular contact with the designated liaisons for each department in the CO that had responsibility for analyzing bills.

During my time at CSU, I met Linda, who was the bill analysis coordinator for Physical Planning and Development, or PPD, as we called it back then. Over the course of 13 years, most of my contact with Linda was either by phone or e-mail, but I did have the opportunity to meet her, and then talk to her in person, on several occasions.

Linda was one of those people of whom others say, "they are too good to be of this world." It's hard to put into words what a wonderful person she was. When I first met her, my first son had just been born, and over the course of the next 13 years, she wanted to know how he was doing, as if he were her own son. When son #2 was born, it was the same thing. She was a rare gem.

When I left the CSU, I kept in touch for a while, but over time, fell out of touch. And tonight, I got a message on Facebook from her daughter (who also worked at the CSU). who remembered me and wanted to say hello, and also let me know how difficult it was to go on without her mother. It was the first I'd heard that Linda was no longer with us.

If there is a better place, Linda is there. And if she is listening, I just want to thank her for the friendship she showed me during the years I worked at CSU, and say that I'm really sorry that I didn't do a better job of staying in touch. We're doing well, and the kids are great. Thank you for everything.