I was notified by Maureen’s daughter one Saturday of the death of our classmate Maureen Rodd Osterman. Cancer was the cause, a hospice in Encenitas CA was the venue, and Friday, Dec. 23 was the date. Those are the bare facts of any obituary that a cub reporter learns to write.

But bare facts are neither a person nor a life. Mo, her preference, was a lovely part of my life. Not that we were buddy-buddies for the 55 years since our graduation. Just that somehow, both of us having cancer (she multiple myeloma), we connected and met anew for lunch in Seattle one day in October 2015. Maybe, after all, we didn’t exactly meet “anew” -- maybe we met, really met, for the first time, courtesy of our cancers, over a lovely lunch and on a perfect afternoon of companionship on the waterfront with boats bobbing just beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. God, it was a great day with Mo.

I knew Mo and her friend, Karen Pilder Graw, would be at the 55^th reunion, and it was heart-warming to see them both there. I gave a wide berth to Mo – allowed her space, knowing I’d see her again soon in Seattle, where her daughter, Karen, lives; I let her have time, "shared" her with other classmates – and I’d have the pleasure of being alone with her later in Seattle. But it wasn’t to be. It was the last time I was to see her, at the 55^th, for little did I know Mo had just been told she had neuroendocrine tumors on her liver -- just three days before the reunion. Inoperable, they said, and now she’s gone.

So glad we shared a first kiss on a sunny October afternoon in 2015.

--Bill Curry