A Life Cut Short

This past week, one of my former student workers at IU South Bend died of injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. Jennifer Myers was only 32 and the South Bend Tribune had a nice article on her in today's paper.

Everyone that knew Jen said she was full of life and very fun to be around. That was certainly true. She livened up our office every time she was there. She could be a little brash at times, a little rough around the edges, yet she loved collecting "Hello Kitty" memorabilia. There was never a dull moment when she was around. She was very kind hearted and was always willing to do everything she could do help staff members and fellow students.

Towards the end of her tenure at IU South Bend, she began to lose her direction a bit and wasn't as good a worker as she had been previously. As such, it got to the point that we had to let her go. She graduated shortly thereafter and then started a new job at the local hospital in which she thoroughly thrived. In fact, she said us letting her go was the best thing that ever happened to her, and it was. She was kinda delaying entry into the "real world" and when we forced her into it, she responded quite well. She was one we were very proud of and she would occasionally come back and visit us.

Jennifer's sister, Julie, also attended IU South Bend and worked for us. Today at the viewing I was able to speak with Julie briefly and she and I both recounted a story about Jen that everyone in the office remembers. Julie, an accounting major, was with us first and was a bit more refined. She told us one day that her sister was coming and that "she was not like me at all and we should be ready." Sure enough, she was right, they were certainly polar opposites, but got along very well (they were just getting ready to go on an Alaskan cruise and both had been sent to Australia as graduation presents years ago).

Where is Jen now? That is certainly out of our hands. I know when she was with us, she made it a point that she was agnostic, but I also know that she had come around and had been attending Granger Community Church. Can only hope that at some point, this "Sister of the Wind" motorcyle enthusiast had made a decision so that I can see her again someday.