I'm one of the luckiest people in the world that Margaret made the effort to make friends with me when I was new at my first job. Her husband's job required a lot of travel, and she would often stop by my lab in the late afternoon and say, “I have a coupon for ____ restaurant. Would you like to eat dinner there this evening?” I had such a good time visiting with her on those evenings, and I've had a wonderful time knowing her in the years since.
I've sometimes said that she and I had to stay friends because we both knew too much, but that statement wasn't really true. It was true that we did many crazy and fun things in those past years but never anything that couldn't be published, and it was NO effort—only a lot of joy--to stay friends with her.
Some of the fun things we did was to attend—along with a group of friends—many concerts at Winterland, Kezar Stadium, the Oakland Coliseum, and the Cow Palace. Poor Margaret always ended up driving because she was the only one of the group who had a full-size car. I often think of all the times I snoozed leaning against a backseat window while the red Volvo rolled home down 280 or 101. Thank goodness, other friends were decent enough to stay awake and talk to our generous driver!
One time, Margaret and I nearly got into a riot as we were purchasing tickets for a Who concert—the Who's Quadrophenia Tour. Several of our friends who were intense Who fans could not get off work at the time the tickets went on sale (10:00 am on a weekday) at the (now closed) Emporium Department Store in the Stanford Shopping Center so she and I bought as many tickets as the store allowed per person. The Emporium ran out of tickets shortly after we had purchased ours—with a lot of people still waiting in line, and some of the people who didn't get tickets started to get angry. She and I ran for our car and got out of there fast! After all that excitement Margaret decided she didn't really want to attend and gave her ticket to another friend. The concert she made one friend very happy to attend was the one where the Who's drummer, Keith Moon, passed out and an audience member came on stage and drummed for the rest of the concert.
I've seen the statement “friends are the family we choose for ourselves”, and that statement definitely applies to Margaret as a friend. I've celebrated and enjoyed many holidays with her, and I got to enjoy her daughter, Sarah, as a baby and as a child and as an adult. At most of the traumas in my life, Margaret appeared at my door bearing chicken soup or chocolate.
Margaret's absence leaves a colossal empty place in my surroundings. She was a person I could laugh with and cry with, celebrate with and complain with.
My life has been 100% better because I got to have Margaret as a friend.