[powerpress]
A few days after returning from my visit to St Olaf College, I got a message from my college friend Steph Fay ’85 that our mutual friend Laura Nelson ’85 had died. I was stunned, and I still don’t know the story—the obituary Steph forwarded several days later was vague—but it was clear that night in the dressing room who I was playing a Kaddish for.
I didn’t know Laura all that well until it was almost too late—we were mostly just acquaintances, and she had graduated and was off to seminary. I was staying around for a summer job on campus that summer. I don’t remember why, but we ended up spending some time together in the narrow window of opportunity that remained, and I wished I’d gotten to know her years earlier.
Laura was radiant. Everyone who knew her even slightly would agree. May she rest in peace; may her smile light up the eyes of the angels as it did so many of ours.