This is another one of my favorite Tracy stories from before me, while she lived in San Francisco. As the Associate General Counsel at Barclays Global Investors (BGI), she was recognized to be part of the senior leadership team and an expert in her field, but as everything with Tracy, it never changed who she was or how she treated people.  She always had a wonderful sense of humor, though with this story, it wasn't necessarily intended.  In early 2010, BGI was acquired by BlackRock and in one of likely many situations, she had to send important contractual paperwork internally to other senior leaders relating to the acquisition. This one time, within seconds of hitting 'send' on the email, her colleague and friend (who will remain nameless for now to protect the innocent) called her up laughing his head off, asking Tracy if she knew what she had done.  Not understanding what he was talking about, she opened up the document she had sent and saw to her utter horror that for some very odd and partly inexplicable reason, spell checker had replaced all incidences of "BlackRock" with "Black....", something that rhymes with rock, but starts with a "c".  She hadn't caught it and now the senior leadership team were opening fairly offensive and off color documents in their emails.  From the sounds of it, everyone took it in stride, but no doubt, it's probably a story that many look back at and just cannot help but laugh.  Tracy was probably initially horrified, but found it equally humorous....because how could you not?  She found the light in nearly everything, even a fairly cautionary tale.

This is one of my all time favorite Tracy stories, though it isn't quite the same without hearing Tracy tell it with her ever expressive face and intonations....but I will try.  Tracy was in Paris years ago with her girlfriend at the time, who had family also in the city.  Her sister, a proper Catholic, had them all attend a high mass at a beautiful cathedral.  The mass was said in French as you'd expect, but it further deepened the mystery to Tracy as far as she was not used to the esoteric rituals.  When people started to get up to go receive the host, Tracy didn't want to stick out by staying behind, so she followed.  Her girlfriend instructed her to just do as she did, but it's kind of heard to see what's going on behind.  So, Tracy took the host and promptly followed the rest back to the pew, when she noticed an abrupt pause in the proceedings accompanied by the sounds of billowing robes and yelling in French.  The priest ran up to Tracy and continued to flail and yell, but she had no idea why.  Her girlfriend asked her what she did with the host and Tracy responded, "I put it in my pocket" as she reached in and pulled it out as if a piece of candy.....having no idea.  Needless to say, this caused quite a commotion and eventually the proceedings continued, but not without crushing embarrassment for Tracy and her traveling companions.  To hear her tell that story would make me roll....genuine, unassuming, so expressive and utterly endearing.

When my husband and I moved to Boston, we probably saw over 100 properties, one of which was Kristine and Tracy’s Fort Point condo (which we found out later on). We ended up settling on the Allele and Kristine and Tracy were our new neighbors. We were just meant to meet. Being pet parents to 2 dogs of our own, there is an instant connection to others of the same situation. But what connected our souls was the night where Tracy helped save the life of my beloved French Bulldog, Gus. Not only did she hold and cuddle / comfort  him during the frantic drive to the ER and was so strong for us, but she was also my voice when I was so overcome and couldn’t speak to my husband who was out of town for work. I am sure Tracy was terrified of my driving that night, speeding through rush hour traffic and through my tears. Tracy was Gus’s angel - so selfless, giving, and supportive.  I don’t know exactly what she had planned for that evening, but all I can tell you is that she was in her pajamas and immediately dropped everything because we needed her. Now that is a true friend. Tracy and I shared a love of pets and often when we would all go out to brunch or walk Castle Island, Kristine and Chris would be a quarter of a mile ahead of us as we chatted along. We were kindred spirits. I don’t know if any of these words I have written can truly capture what she meant to me, but Trac, you are so missed!

On our first solo trip out on Memorial Day that year after "successfully completing" our lessons, we set out from Rowe's wharf to anchor near one of Boston harbor's islands, a route we had done before with our instructor.  We probably should have paid more attention to the details of the forecast, including tide and increasing winds.  This harbor is a challenging place to sail as it's quite busy and because of bordering warehouses and airport, has some interesting wind patterns.  When we turned a corner going out of the harbor toward the islands, we realized just how windy it was and despite the 27 foot sturdy club boat, felt fairly vulnerable with a substantial list.  As we approached the target island for planned anchoring, we came about while Tracy wasn't quite ready, allowing the lines (ropes) to fly through her bare hands, causing immediate and excruciating rope burn.  She dropped to the floor screaming in pain as the jib lines were completely out flying around like Medusa's angry locks.  It was all I could do as we went in circles around a channel marker with boats coming at us, to steer with my foot and get the lines back in.  Needless to say, we abandoned the perhaps overoptimistic plans to anchor and picnic, and realized we were probably in over our heads.  As we continued to press on around the islands to then head back, there were some really challenging gusts on top of a very consistent gale, all while basically being a man down as Tracy tried to function with raw, painful hands.  Once we got past the islands and pointed back toward the city, but still at a good distance, we realized the pure headwind met with now choppy seas were going to make for a very long return, even after we finally relented by turning on the fairly pathetic motor and pulling in the sails.  There were several points where we were really close to calling the Coast Guard for a rescue and very nearly got hit by a high speed ferry.  I think we kissed the ground when we finally got back, exhausted, but thankful.

Taking over from where we left off in the Boston section where Tracy randomly chose to gate crash a meet up group event in Lynn, MA one evening in late March, 2012....

This was an anniversary event for a regional meetup group, held at an art gallery from ~4pm until a blue haired close of ~9pm.  I was hanging out with a few friends I had gotten to know through this meetup group and generally keeping to myself when each time I looked across the room, I locked eyes with this interesting looking woman I had never seen before, several tables away.  Over the course of dinner, it kept happening and we recognized it with a friendly smile.  After a couple of speeches, the music amped up and people started to dance, including my friends and I, and I couldn't help but notice Tracy's impressive dance moves.  I went back to our table until Tracy marched over to introduce herself and ask me to dance.  Of course, I did.....a most unexpected evening already.  Fast songs and fun moves lead to slower ones and the rapid close for the event....far too early.  My head was spinning....I kept thinking, "who is this person?".  While a few of us stayed behind to help the organizers put away chairs and tables, I learned that one of my friends (a former state trooper) had pulled Tracy aside for an inquisition to get the scoop.  She came over to me afterwards to start reporting her findings.....single, British, an attorney, manages a team, etc.  I marveled at how much data she had gathered so quickly and felt badly for the inquisition, but didn't really care.  I just knew this was someone very interesting that I had to get to know....and we weren't done with the evening. 

My friends and I asked locals for recommendations on where in Lynn we could continue the festivities and they suggested "The Blue Ox", a gastric bistro a few blocks away.  It did not disappoint....what a lovely place.  Anyway, Dana and Patti joined Tracy and I for snacks, beverages and lively conversation.  After a while, Dana and Patti left to go home and uncharacteristically, I was still not at all ready to end the evening with this most captivating person. Tracy and I stayed until like 1am  (everyone who knows me knows I'm a home and in bed by 10 kind of person) at the Blue Ox getting to know one another and Tracy could not remember where she parked her car (trademark her), so I drove her around until we found it, still hanging out in the car mostly talking.  I had never met anyone like her and it was as if we had known one another all our lives.  I had never felt so instantaneously connected to someone and wasn't even looking for that at the time, but here we were.  As I said before, when I held her hand for the first time that evening, it felt as natural as breathing and after a while, I couldn't tell where mine ended and hers started.  It was like that every day for our remaining 9 years.  

Whether you believe in this stuff or not, I learned later that she had been told by spiritual counselors that she was going to meet me in the weeks leading up to it.

Not natural tour guides, when good friends Jeffrey, Maile and young son Sawyer came to visit for the weekend in 2013, we said, "let's do a fast boat ride in Boston harbor and then go to the Aquarium before dinner".  Sure.  For an early summer day, it ended up being a big overcast and cooler than one would expect when we all piled onto "Codzilla" with our visiting and local friends Deb, Jorge and young son, Dario.  We got there a little late and found most of the boat full except for this one awesome looking section we couldn't believe was free.  Codzilla is a gigantic speed boat that goes out into Boston Harbor doing fast maneuvers and spins trying to get away from an elusive mutant cod.  It turns out that our section was right where the waves of water would fold into the boat from those many rapid spins.....we missed that explanation in the beginning because we were late.  :^ ) So, while the storyline and maneuvers were super fun, with each spin we were engulfed in cold ocean water... a number of times before returning back to shore.  No one brought a change of clothing and pretty much all the kids in the group were crying.  Well done, childless tour guides!

I include this in the Tracy stories because she was SUCH a great sport about nearly everything, including this horrendous outing with friends.  And because she would "pull" (Britishism) the most priceless of faces....and this was a good one.  Soaked to the bone and cold, this summed up her comical review of the soggy adventure.