Things should be good. I had a pleasant weekend with friends, food, and movies, took pretty new car in for her first scheduled maintenance, Bob and Laura welcomed a baby girl into the world – welcome, Amelia! And the Detroit Pistons completely demoralized the Los Angeles Lakers on the road to the NBA championship. I’m so pleased about that.

But it hasn’t actually been that great of a day, because I lost someone I cared about. A wonderful woman named Denise took care of all of us in the Physics and Astronomy Department at ASU for, well, as long as I’ve been there and long before that. Although confined to a wheelchair, she was energetic and cheerful and ran the department like a well-oiled machine. If you needed an answer, Denise knew it. If you needed to vent, she listened. If you needed chocolate, the bowl on her desk was well stocked. She would put silly little Christmas gifts in our mailboxes. She inspired fear, gratitude, and admiration, in the best tradition of office managers.

I last saw her at the beginning of March, when she seemed well and happy. Not long after that, she started complaining of fatigue. In mid-March, she didn’t show up to work one day. The doctor said it was cancer that had spread throughout her body. They gave her six months. She only had three.

So, don’t forget to reach out and hug someone you love. And, if you whisper, “Lakers are losers” while you do so, that’s cool, too.