I first met Mary 20 or so years ago when she was a media director in a Silicon Valley advertising agency. I liked her immediately. She had an Irish twinkle in her eye, a wonderful sense of humor and more importantly she was a wonderful human being. I've known her husband, Roy, a public relations type and a real gentleman, for going on a quarter of a century. His sense of humor is best demonstrated by his April Fool's "Write-Only Memory" (WOM) press release years ago. At the time he was with Signetics, and when a couple of naive publications picked up the release it made the joke even more enjoyable. WOM indeed.
Mary was originally from the West Side of Chicago and at one of our meetings I happened to mention my early days in the Windy City and my love affair with White Castle hamburgers, those tiny, greasy burgers with onions affectionately known as "sliders." Mary also loved sliders. Several months later I was having lunch with Mary and Roy and as we were walking to the parking lot afterwards Mary stopped: "Frank, I have something for you." With that she walked to the trunk of their car, opened a small cooler, smiled at Roy and took out a package of half-frozen White Castles. Funny how one remembers small acts of kindness.
On May 23 Roy sent this e-mail: "Mary's 16-month fight with advanced ovarian cancer ended peacefully yesterday at 4:18 a.m. in the Peterson Cancer Center of Stanford Medical Center. Mary never complained, even in moments of pain, and put every bit of her being into the effort to remain the heart of her family. She succeeded, but we would give anything to have her here physically. Life goes on in our house, but our brightest light has been extinguished and our dearest life-maker has been forced to leave us." My friend Mary was 49 and is survived by her husband, Roy, and two children, her parents, a brother and six sisters, and hundreds of friends who have been touched by her wit, caring and many acts of kindness. Mary, we miss you.
Frank is at www.fburge.com.
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