In addition to being her classmate at BYU, I was fortunate
to get to work with Rachel during the last year of her life. My favorite moments include conversations
held over lunch, in my office, and on the many walks to Chevron to buy junk
food (generally peanut butter snickers for her and bear claws and Diet Coke for
me). Usually we talked about something
like Star Wars, orbital mechanics, Rick and Morty, the most efficient means of
reducing energy consumption, computer games, politics, how to make cheese, the
classifications of alcoholic beverages, how many laser pointers it would take
to light up a new moon, and podcasts.
We also talked about her struggles with depression, relationships,
feeling wanted, suffering, religion, being transgender, and autism. Rachel had some really bad days, but she was
usually the smiling face posted here on the right.
One off the many things I found remarkable about her was her
ability to make friends wherever she went.
She has friends from all sorts of communities, work (across multiple
departments), school, various religious and non-religious groups, Comicon,
Ponicon, and Havencon, you name it.
These are groups that don’t tend to have a lot in common, but she was welcome everywhere
because of her generosity, her unfailing kindness, her intelligence, and that
incredibly bright smile. Seriously, can
you think of anyone that has a smile as infectious as Rachel’s?
I don’t have a great memory for what my wife calls “people
things.” But some moments seem fresh no
matter how long ago they occurred. One
such was when Rachel and I got kicked out of two different city parks in the
same night in an effort to do some planet-gazing with my new telescope. We gave up on parks and set up in the parking
lot of his apartment complex. He told me
about Kerbal Space Program (because he thought my daughter and I would enjoy
playing it together) and what it was like living with Aspergers. I saw Jupiter through a telescope for the
first time with her that night and it was as “spiritual” an experience as any I
have ever had.
Rachel was a woman of many talents, from analysis and cheese
making, to computer building and distilling her own gourmet spirits. Last night I went to visit her widow. She was giving Rachel memorabilia to friends
and family and asked me if there was anything I wanted to help me remember her
by. I was halfway through telling her about
some fancy chocolate liqueur Rachel had given me to spice up my occasional White
Russian, and she pulls from the fridge the last bottle of homemade eggnog
Rachel ever made. She poured us each a
glass and we toasted an exceptional life.
I don’t know if there’s a life after this one, let alone the meaning of it, but if there is, I hope she’s enjoying a pan galactic gargle blaster there. I miss my hoopy friend, she was a frood that really knew
where her towel was.
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