Redbird Down

Hail to A Queen.

Now is a time that we sing in remembrance the songs of youth. We look back upon movie nights, video games and other such sweet things. Here we pay respect to the anomalous action of untimely death. Attention is due when a mockingbird no longer sings.

Laura Wells Swartz set me up on my first date with my future wife twenty years ago in high school. She hung out backstage and talked about derpy stuff. We put on makeup together. We watched Animaniacs. She never hesitated to laugh. She put the smack down on Dumb Junk and could beat some ass at Dr. Mario. In her adult life she took vacations and put in overtime as an Awesome Aunt. She never stopped questioning, but she already knew how to live.

Laura got taken out by Cancer and if it wasn't for social media I wouldn't have found out until some throwaway conversation at some throwaway high school reunion because I hadn't stayed in touch. I don't know how that friend request never got made. Laura reached out last year and told me not to worry about the Plaza stuff, she said she knew who I really was. I shoulda known to tell her not to worry about the cancer stuff, or even just a "thanks for being in my life."

Laura had a varsity letter in band, she was a scientist and traveled the world. She was a winner by any definition of the word and history would do well to know that her perfectly normal story was a butterfly effect that touched everyone around her. I have two daughters in part because of her. Everyone else reaped just as sweet rewards by knowing her. This is her chapter from the book of Greatest People Who Ever Lived.

So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish.