Sherri

Just me

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:41:02 GMT

There's a meme going around to take a picture of yourself just this minute, no matter what you look like, and post it. No editing, no do-overs. So here's me, sitting in my 3rd floor office at home:

Fragility

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:53:06 GMT

I just found out yesterday that a former co-worker whom I considered a friend, Matt Cartwright, passed away on Monday evening. It was sudden and unexpected, a freak accident at his mother's house. He apparently fell and hit his head really hard...so hard that it was the head trauma that caused his death.

I can't wrap my mind around it. I was just starting to get back in touch with him, it'd been so long and I really wanted to reconnect and find out how he was doing. We'd worked together on all kinds of absolutely crazy projects, and he would always keep us together and keep us moving even when the client was driving him nuts or when he was angry and frustrated. He would always crack jokes and draw crazy pictures on the whiteboards and keep us laughing even on the late nights. Always made sure we were fed on the late nights, too, which was always appreciated.

I met his wife Alison on those crazy projects, too. She's a great graphic designer, and she would often come in as a freelancer to pitch in and help when things got nutty. Alison's an amazing sweetheart, and now I regret not keeping in touch with her as well.

Their first and only daughter, Ellie, turns one year old next week. She will only have pictures of her father to know him by.

I just can't wrap my mind around it. This week was supposed to be a big marketing week for me, but now I just can't focus. It doesn't seem important anymore.

I wish I weren't so pregnant, so that I could actually go to the funeral and memorial for him. It's too far to travel at 37 weeks, or possibly 38 or more once the arrangements are made. I wish I could be there. I wish there was something I could do, besides remember him and cry.

Overheard...

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 15:25:02 GMT

Don (playing with Dot in the living room): "No offense, baby..."
Dot: "I'm not a fence baby!"

Who's the sidekick, here?

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 17:30:42 GMT

Dot, who is 3 now, asked to take a shower with me this morning. I said sure, and we spent a happy shower together (me mostly getting clean, she mostly splashing). After the shower, we both got our towels and started drying off.

She draped her towel over her shoulders, and said, "Look! I have...a Superman scarf." So I grinned, and said, "Yes, you have a superhero cape. Hey, can I be SuperMom, you'll be SuperGirl, and I'll be your sidekick?" She replied, "Sure!" She then marched toward me and proceeded to whack my shin with her foot.

Startled, I asked, "What was that for?" She looked at me and said, "I want you to be SuperMom and I want to be your kicker!" And she didn't quite understand why I burst out laughing, but she grinned anyway...

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 17:03:29 GMT

Found this link from Nixicat, and had a great time building my doll. :)

Refocusing my LJ...

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 14:38:02 GMT

This journal entry will hopefully be one of my last to "break the fourth wall", in theater-speak (In other words, it acknowledges that I have an audience). The whole audience-orientation of LJ has recently begun to get to me. So I'm going to be making some changes.

The first change is that I will no longer be commenting in anyone else's journal. There's just too much tendency for both the original journaller and anyone else reading to "play to the audience"...usually resulting in not much useful conversation, and a lot of attempted upstaging (otherwise known as, "I can be funnier or more sarcastic than you can"). It's really only the illusion of dialogue.

The second change is that I will be disabling comments in my own journal. If I say something in my journal that you disagree with, or that you agree with, or that sparks thoughts you'd like to share...start a conversation with me! Send me email about it, give me a call on the phone and chat. I think this will be far more useful and rewarding, albeit less convenient.

Hopefully, the result will be that I will feel less inhibited about putting my thoughts out there, and will therefore be journalling more often. We'll see how it goes.

We now return you to your very irregularly scheduled LJ.

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 16:02:19 GMT

gakked from mizmoose:

If you read this,
even if I don't speak to you often,
please post a memory of me.
It can be anything you want, it can be good or bad,
just so long as it happened.
Then post this to your journal to see what people remember about you.

[edited to remove the imperative]

Thankfulness

Wed, 19 Jan 2005 20:57:55 GMT

Again, I've been internalizing for a while, not finding time to post (despite finding time to spend 4+ hours at a stretch every couple of days to play World of Warcraft...good lord, that game is addictive). But I was thinking that I'd like to start a tradition of a weekly list of things I'm thankful for, maybe only 3-5 things at a time.

So, my list of things I'm thankful for today:
    A workplace where my ideas are appreciated and encouraged
    The opportunity to have a one-working-parent family
    A husband who is so wonderful at looking after our daughter
    A daughter who is blossoming day by day
    Experience driving in snow!

Not that there's much snow, but of course I-95 is already completely closed at one point and there's accidents all over the region. Please, let my last thankful point not come back to haunt me later!

Striving to be a good strong bow

Wed, 09 Jun 2004 18:58:14 GMT

A long while back, when we were first receiving baby gifts for Dorothy, Ceil Weida (one of Mary's sisters) quoted a poem which I found incredibly moving. Since then, I'd been searching for that poem so that I could remember and reflect upon it. Today, I found it:

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom
said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so he loves
also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran
1883 - 1931
Lebanese poet, artist, and philosopher

Sophie arrived safely!

Thu, 27 May 2004 13:23:50 GMT

Been too busy to really update much, but Sophie Louise Delle Chiaie was born on May 24th at 8:05 PM, weighing 7 lbs 3 oz and measuring 19.5 inches. From what I hear, it was a long labor, but Heather did the whole thing without any drugs, and is so calm and serene about everything! My sister is an amazing woman.

We're hoping to send them some flowers, and I also want to send my sister a book called The Baby Owners Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance, which is available at Amazon.com. I highly recommend it to any geeky or techie person who's considering having a child. It's written just like a hardware manual, except easy to understand and with lovely funny illustrations. Plus, the information is spot-on accurate as well as humorously presented! Do I sound like a commercial? I swear I'm not getting any kickbacks. :-)

And finally, a photo of the little one.

This photo was taken shortly after she was born, and already she's a heart-breaker! :-)

The 23/5 meme

Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:12:20 GMT

Okay, this cheered me up a bit. The meme goes:

1.Go into your LJ's archives.
2.Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3.Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4.Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.

So here it is:

"Turkeys."

That is all. :-)

Things you don't know about before becoming a parent

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 00:01:34 GMT

Babies can propel a stream of poop far enough to hit a wall more than 3 feet away, but only if you've forgotten to leave the diaper in place while you're cleaning their butt.

Breastfeeding may be the best way to feed your baby, but babies need to eat at least every two to three hours. So you don't get to sleep in increments any longer than two to three hours at a time.

Sleep deprivation can really affect your judgement. We've had 3 kitchen accidents since Dorothy was born, and the last one filled the kitchen with smoke and ruined a pot.

Photos!

Tue, 27 Jan 2004 01:26:36 GMT

Okay, I finally grabbed a free minute...here are some photos of Dot (most taken between birth and 1 week old). The photos are pretty sizable, so I'm lj-cutting for your convenience. :-)

Here's the new family, shortly after the birth:

A new mother trying to take it all in:

Here's an idea of exactly how small she was at first (with toy and my hand, for scale):

She's our little angel...

Very cute when she's sleeping!

We're smitten, we're exhausted, and we're a bigger family now

Tue, 13 Jan 2004 16:55:02 GMT

I probably won't have time for any big updates for a while now, but Dorothy Cecelia Alexander arrived safe and sound promptly on her due date (January 10th) at 11:34 AM. She weighed in at 7 pounds 9 ounces, and she's going to be a "Long Tall Sally" as my Mom says...she measured 21 inches long at birth.

There were no serious complications during labor or birth, though she scared us a few times when her heartrate went down during contractions. And I now realize exactly how naive I was in hoping for a non-medicated childbirth...as it lasted about 13 hours total, I'm very glad that I opted for an epidural after making it to about 5 cm dilated (which was only a few hours into it). Contractions are REALLY REALLY painful, and nothing I've ever felt (even acute appendicitis) comes close. I will probably post as much as I can remember (with Don's help) about the birthing experience later, but it'll be lj-cut for your protection and restricted access.

But anyhow, Don and I and Dot are home now, and are adjusting to a new schedule, and not very much sleep...Dot does most of her sleeping during the day, whereas we prefer to do ours at night. Tough luck for the new parents, eh? I can hear her beginning to rouse from her nap now, so I'd better get going. Thanks to all who sent their LiveJournal well-wishes...they're very much appreciated! We'll have to post some photos later, so everyone else can see how cute she is too. :-)

38 week checkup

Wed, 31 Dec 2003 18:12:12 GMT

This past Saturday marked the 38-week mark of my preganancy...Dorothy would now be considered a full-term baby if she was born now! And despite my hopes, the checkup on Monday revealed no progress whatsoever since last week (well, besides gaining a few more pounds...ack!). My blood pressure is still nice and low, and the baby's heartbeat sounds very happy.

In fact, the doctor mentioned that he's going on vacation next week, returning around next Friday, which is only 1 day before my due date. He said that we should be fine while he's away, darn it. I'm getting very impatient...I want to see her, to hold her, to meet this new person I've been carrying around! Mysterious wigglings and pokings from inside just aren't enough to go by.

So, in short, no tax break for us this year. :-) It's likely that I'm going to be following in the footsteps of most new first-time moms, and delivering later than the due date. It's getting so hard to wait!

Apparently, it was practice.

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 21:08:12 GMT

Much to my dismay, the contractions gradually petered out and disappeared. Darn. Just when things were getting interesting. Stupid false labor...

Practice, or the real thing?

Fri, 26 Dec 2003 14:12:55 GMT

I noticed on one of my usual trips to the bathroom during the night that I seemed to be having more practice contractions (have had a lot of them in the past 2 days). Then around 6:30 or so I woke up in some discomfort, to find that my tummy muscles were feeling a little sore, and more contractions seemed to be happening.

So I'm taking a sick day today, in case things develop further. Of course, since I got up and started writing all my sick day emails, the contractions have tapered off. Might be a false alarm...who knows? But I'm eating light, just in case (and unfortunately my tummy feels kinda queasy, which I've heard is also a symptom of labor).

Babytalk: 37 wk checkup

Tue, 23 Dec 2003 00:42:09 GMT

Today, we went in for our 37 week checkup! The doctor performed the internal exam to see how things were progressing, and asked if we were shooting for a tax break for this year! Apparently, I've progressed to 50% effaced, and between 1.5-2 cm dilation!

I think the progress is because Dorothy is trying to escape from the inside, based on her movement patterns! She keeps whapping up against the exit hatch pretty hard. The resulting sensations are...interesting...to say the least!

So anyway, the doctor said that things are proceeding along quite nicely, and that he'll see me next week at the same time...unless something happens first! Needless to say, even though we're trying not to get our hopes up too high, Don and I are ramping up our preparations big time! Organizing our little nursery area, packing our hospital bags, etc...so much to do, so much to do!

Babytalk: 36 wk checkup

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 04:26:50 GMT

Today, we had our 36 week checkup at the obstetrician's office. Results: I've gained 5 pounds since my last checkup 2 weeks ago (yikes!), my blood pressure's fine, baby's heartbeat is happy around 150 beats per minute, and I'm roughly 40% effaced, no dilation. The countdown has begun! :-)

Been Reeeeeeeally Sick

Wed, 29 Oct 2003 14:45:40 GMT

*pulls self up to computer for a while to update journal*

I've been really really sick, with either a cold or a virus, I'm not really sure. I guess I'd just heard about how awful it was to be sick in one's third trimester of pregnancy, and being the skeptic I am, just had to find out for myself. Now I know...it's AWFUL.

For those who don't know, the immune system of a pregnant woman is rather reduced from the norm, because...well, a baby is really kind of a foreign body, right? So it's very important that the woman's own immune system NOT reject it. So the immune system goes into low drive, which doesn't leave us much protection when a cold comes along. Colds tend to last longer, too. So I was descending into sickness for all of last week (managing to get to work), but got really sick over the weekend, and haven't been into work all this week so far (including today).

I think that the worst part has been the coughing...even when there was nothing to cough, my body still had really convulsive coughing fits, especially when I reclined in any direction. So sleeping was very very difficult...a couple of nights ago, I don't think I really slept at all. I've only been half-functioning due to sleep deprivation up until last night, when I started to get maybe an hour of sleep at a time, sometimes as much as an hour and a half. For the last few days, I've been existing in some strange half-waking, half-sleeping fog, having difficulty telling which state I was in.

I might be too optimistic, but I think I'm starting to pull out of it now. Napping is still very much on the agenda for today, though...I am so beat!

I'm in either my 29th or 30th week now (I keep losing track!)...not all that much longer to go! At least, that's what I keep telling myself. :-) My belly feels huge, and I can no longer see my feet. Up until recently, I was congratulating myself on not having any visible stretch marks on my tummy...that is, until I made the mistake yesterday of looking on the *underside* of my belly (which is not an easy task either, I might add)! I'm not sure if it's partially because of all the harsh coughing I've been doing, but there's a whole bunch of very interesting zigzaggy red marks under there. So much for that, huh? At least they should be pretty interesting-looking once my belly returns to its former size!

And as an extra added bonus for those who read this far...here's a photo of me (and Dorothy!) that Don took a week or two back. I've actually gotten a little bit bigger since this was taken, believe it or not! I'm showing off the newest Fall fashions for maternity wear, doncha know. :-)

Update on a growing family...

Sun, 12 Oct 2003 15:14:13 GMT

As a non-sequitur opening, I wonder why I have songs from Schoolhouse Rock! going through my head this morning? Must be because of thinking about our little sprog-to-be...we're going to have to get that DVD, I think, and play little excerpts for her once she's old enough to appreciate them. :-) We've been using her as an excuse to get a lot of the things that we've always wanted to get, like animation DVDs and the Jim Henson Storyteller collection.

It's been a pretty uneventful week...work at Refinery's been a bit slow as we're in between a lot of projects, so I'm helping out with a bunch of internal efforts. I'll be co-writing a "5-Minute Whitepaper" on accessibility issues (which I've become quite keen about, having developed a site that was mostly Level 2 Accessibility compliant), and I'm also getting more involved with web tracking (like WebTrends, Coremetrics, etc). Still no transition plan in place for my maternity leave...I hope that we can plan that soon, as I'm now entering my third trimester! How time does fly!

All baby-type stuff has been proceeding along apace, no real difficulties since our big scare. I'm still getting bigger and bigger...some of my maternity clothes that we bought a while back no longer fit, so we'll probably be going back today or tomorrow to get some more. At least all my sweaters fit...nice, stretchy sweaters. :-) She's really kicking away in there pretty regularly, and Don's been able to feel her kick and stretch occasionally (I love the ecstatic grin he gets when that happens). Our next obstetrical visit will be tomorrow, and we don't anticipate anything out of the ordinary. Maybe we'll get some more ultrasound pictures, but probably not...the doctor (whom we're seeing tomorrow) is a bit more stingy with them than the registered nurse is.

We've also been preparing our nursery area for the new baby as well...there's not much room, sad to say, but we'll be very efficient with what we have! We've got the crib all set up, with the exception of the waterproof protective sheets that we need (I *still* can't get the hang of putting the railing up and down, though). We've practiced putting the Baby Bjorn baby carrier together and fitting it on Don with a stuffed animal inside. We've prewashed most of the clothes and blankets that we've received so far. Sometime soon we'll have to put together the Pack N Play so we'll know how to do that...but I'm not sure where we'd have enough room to do so!

With the idea of getting more space (specifically more baby-safe and baby-friendly space), we're going to start looking for houses soon too. We've researched and chosen a real estate agent, and we're narrowing down mortgage companies now for pre-approval. Hopefully, we might be able to get pre-approved sometime this coming week! I made a big effort this weekend to go through all the information and papers that we might need to provide...doing very well so far! I don't think that we can afford a very nice or a very big house, which is depressing, but at least we hope to have more room to work with than we do here! Even a basement or a garage would help immeasurably.

Well, there's a lot on the docket for today (going to a local farmer's market for supplies, maybe going clothes shopping, watching football with Don, and possibly doing some research on non-table CSS web development), so I'd better get going! :-)

It's official...a new addition to our family!

Sat, 28 Jun 2003 20:39:51 GMT

Some folks have known about this for a while now, but I wanted to wait to make the public announcement. So here it is: Don and I are expecting our first child!

I'm between 12-13 weeks along now, and much of the initial discomfort stuff is over. Everything is proceeding along just fine so far, and the due date (which of course is only a rough estimate) is somewhere around Jan 10th. Still no idea what the gender of the child is...we probably won't know that for a while yet.

We're very excited about him/her, and wanted to share it with everyone! :-)

Other than that, things are frantically busy between work and illustration, so haven't had much time to update. In fact, I have to go finish another illustration now that I've been procrastinating on all day. Later!

Catching up again...

Tue, 06 May 2003 02:13:42 GMT

It's been quite a while since I was writing regularly here...I can only claim sheer exhaustion as my excuse (and a poor one at that, since many of my friends manage to write even more when they're making herculean efforts!). At the end of April, I finished up a marathon 10 illustrations in 3 weeks for UCLA. Well, not entirely finished...they'll be finished in a second round for sometime in June, along with probably 5-10 MORE illustrations to boot! But I have a bit of a reprieve until May 12, so I'm living it up 'til then. :-)

Today, I received a call from an ad agency in San Francisco, who saw my work in the Directory of Illustration #19, and want to see my portfolio! They have me in mind to illustrate a quirky national ad campaign for Adobe. How cool is that? I made sure to mention that I use Adobe products when creating my illustrations, in my cover letter.

At this rate, my business is definitely set to do better this year, and it's the first year that I haven't mailed out any postcards or flyers at all. It's all coming in by word of mouth and by my sourcebook ads and online portfolios. Whee!

On another front, Don and I are currently beginning to think very seriously about housing...our townhouse is starting to go past cozy, and is beginning to approach the nomiker "cramped". So we've been reading up on materials for the first-time house buyer, we ordered a credit report on ourselves (good news, excellent credit), we went out looking at different neighborhoods over the weekend, and we started doing up all the numbers. Unfortunately, the numbers look pretty pathetic at this point...we'd really need to pay off a current car loan and save up a hefty amount before we could start looking seriously. Unless we get some windfalls (or familial help, which I don't want to count on), we're looking at about 2 years of more scrimping and saving first. *sigh*

Don has also been having a slew of good luck, freelance-wise. He's been illustrating several kids audio CDs, and will be interviewing with Aquent next week (they have a big Director job available, and they thought he'd be perfect). He's been very happy (and has also had more time to work on his model railroad), which in turn makes me very happy. I was touched the other week when he said, "I wish I had left [former company name] sooner." It took him a long time to come to that realization, but it's just amazing how much happier he's been since then.

The only thing I've been feeling the lack of lately is friendly contact...due to work (both day and evening), I haven't had too much free time to socialize. I'm hoping to get together with friends soon...I really miss everybody!

Oh, nearly forgot. Don and I are planning a vacation together for our anniversary. Nothing extravagant (as per the "scrimping and saving" mentioned above), but we might drive up to Vermont. Neither of us has been to Vermont, and it could be fun. It's not Bar Harbor though, that's for sure. *sigh* But it's our first vacation together for just us in a year or two, now!

Small victories...

Fri, 28 Feb 2003 20:35:23 GMT

Okay, so this isn't a huge accomplishment, compared to other things in life. But after many hours of gameplay, last night Don and I beat the game "Kingdom Hearts" for Playstation 2.

And I don't just mean that we just finished the game. Oh, no. When I beat a game, I stomp it into submission. :-) So we found all 99 Dalmations, beat all the Colosseum tournaments in all modes (Group, Solo, and Timed), got the Ultimate weapons for all three main characters, found all the Trinities, beat all the bosses and some of the optional bosses (except Sephiroth, darn it), and unlocked the secret ending. Wh00t!

Of course, it takes me so long to do all this...the main character Sora was level 92 or so by the end of it.

Boy, was that game fun! I can't wait until either a) there's a sequel, or b) the next Final Fantasy game comes out. Maybe I'll go back to FF7-9, since I never finished those...

Remembering...

Sat, 15 Feb 2003 15:53:43 GMT

Yesterday afternoon, my step-grandmother (whom I knew affectionately by the name "Meena") lost her battle with cancer. She had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor last year, and lived much longer (and with as much spark and vigor as she could) than the doctors had predicted. All this week, she was grimly hanging on, toughing it out until all her daughters and sons had arrived from afar.

I've been trying to remember as much as I can about the time we had together, to try and record it all here. For me, this is a difficult proposition; my memory has never been terribly good. I have difficulty remembering events unless there's some sort of written or pictorial record to spark my memory. But with that said, here is how I remember Meena.

I first got to know her when my Dad began dating her daughter, Mary (whom I also love very much). As best as I can place it, this was somewhere around 1997 or so. I remember being invited to a family gathering, and being intimidated. Not by the sheer size of the Connelly family -- sure, Mary has 9 sisters and brothers with lots of kids, but my Dad has 6 brothers and sisters, so I'm used to having lots of aunts and uncles and cousins around -- but instead by how welcoming everyone was. And the one who seemed the most open was Ceil Connelly, who immediately insisted that we had to call her Meena, since all of the grandchildren did.

In fact, after Dad and Mary were married, Don and I suddenly found that we were escalated in status in the Connelly family. Age determines the pecking order, and suddenly we were the oldest "grandchildren" by a wide margin! This always made me uncomfortable, but no one ever seemed to take it amiss. There's so much love in that family.

When Don and I were preparing for our own wedding, I really wanted to include all the branches of my family: Mary, Mom's boyfriend Jack, and Meena. It's usually traditional for the mother of the bride to accompany her to dress buying and dress fittings. My Mom was very far away, so as I remember, I took Mary on my first dress expedition, and then when it came to getting fittings, I asked Meena if she would come with me. She was so happy...she brought me to the store, and became my advocate and staunch defender: this would be the PERFECT dress, or she'd have something to say about it to the seamstresses!

In fact, when the dress finally arrived, she took it to her house for storage. She was very unhappy with the crinkly piece that goes underneath...apparently, those unspeakable people at the dress store had let it get all wrinkled! Of course, it was actually supposed to be wrinkled...that's its function. She didn't tell me at the time, but apparently she took it upon herself to iron and steam and press it until it was nice and smooth. Unfortunately, now that it wasn't as poofy, it didn't hold the dress up nearly as high as during all my fittings, and it made my father-daughter dance fraught with giggly peril. I was whispering to Dad, "Backwards is not good for me...can we waltz forwards?" to the bouncy tune of The Rainbow Connection, as we danced. I never told her about my dress difficulties, though, and her intense but well-meaning help has always brought a smile when I think back upon that day.

They were always so pleased to see Don and I when we came up to Allentown to visit. Don, being very much a gentleman, would often hold her hand or take her arm as we walked. Soon, it became a tradition. We sometimes went out to parks near Allentown, and we would walk together, and talk about all sorts of things. I remember that once we were walking down near a river, with massive willow trees trailing their tendrils in the water. She confided in us that she just loved water, and that someday she would love to live in a little house by a lake or a stream, or even the ocean.

I think she liked having someone to talk to who was close like family, but who didn't already know all the stories. She had so many stories of how she and Pop-pop raised 10 children together, how another (Michael) didn't survive, how Pop-pop went off to fight in the war, then came back and became a doctor...I loved to hear them all.

Meena even came down to visit us, once...we took her out to the park at Lake Galena, and we walked all around the lake together. Then we brought her to our favorite Chinese restaurant, which she liked very much (although there was nearly a brawl between she and Don when it came to who would settle the bill). As always, she won.

Her love for water had led her to scuba diving many years before, and she was a local scuba instructor. She offered to teach Don and I to scuba-dive, with a family discount for the class. We joined her granddaughter Rachel for the lessons, and found quickly that Meena was a formidable teacher. On the first day, she openly introduced the three of us as her grandchildren, and from that point on we were held to the highest standards in the class.

She taught scuba the old-fashioned way, and we had to learn many difficult skills that would have me in tears of frustration more than once. But we learned, and learned well. I think I will always remember my first dive with Meena...she always made a point of holding her partner's hand while diving. She said that it was so that she would feel more secure, but in reality it was the other way around: she was offering me a way to have that extra comfort since I was nervous, while letting me save face. I think she was always very wise that way.

Even after the illness struck, and she was weakened by the surgery and the chemotherapy treatments and the medicines she had to take, she was very strong...and strong-willed. She had things that she knew she wanted to do in the time that she had left, and she set out to do them. She and Dad and Mary took a trip to Arizona, to Chaco Canyon (it's an ancient ceremonial center for Native Americans, which has many mysteries connected with it...why did everyone gather there? why did they all leave?). Dad and Mary wheeled her in a wheelchair all over the Canyon, and they brought back incredible photos which Meena showed to us proudly.

This past week, we went to visit her twice, and she was very weak and frail, and on oxygen since her lungs were failing. But she still wanted to talk, to tell stories about her life, and to hear about what we've been doing. On Tuesday, we told her before we left that we loved her very much. As it turns out, that was the last time we saw her. I can't help but wish that I had followed my instincts and come to visit on Thursday night, even though I know that wouldn't have changed anything.

Rest in peace, Meena. You will be missed more than you know.