Farewell, Ann

Our friend Ann died. She wasn't a close friend, but a friend, nonetheless. A kind, sweet, and hilarious person. We first got to know her when she started doing stand-up comedy with our friend, Jennifer, about 4 years ago.  Ann's partner of 16 years, Linda, passed away last September after a battle with ovarian cancer. When Linda passed away I thought to myself that Ann would certainly have a few decades on her own. She was relatively young at 50. But I'm sure it was as much a surprise to her as it was to many of us when she became ill with multiple myeloma in February and was suddenly on a downward spiral. Trevor faithfully read her blog and occasionally filled me in. Being ultra-busy pursuing a MLS from Simmons College, I have little time for reading blogs that aren't written by librarians or about libraries. So sadly, I wasn't following along. On June 1st Trevor told me that Ann announced on her blog that her doctors told that she had 1 to 3 days left. My head was spinning. I really felt out of the loop. So I called Jennifer. Jennifer very nicely replied and said, yes it was true, Ann was dying. Every day, several times a day, I checked in on her blog until Saturday June 5th when it was announced that Ann had passed away.  I felt relief for her that her struggle was over and that she died peacefully at home surrounded by her friends and family.  We attended the memorial service on Sunday and it was lovely. Trevor is not one to jump at the opportunity to attend funerals but we both wanted to go to her service simply because we liked her and she was a really nice person. I knew I would see Jennifer there but it turns out there were a few other people there that we knew, including Rev. Andrea Avayzian, whom Ann affectionately called P.A. "Pastor Andrea". There were several heartfelt, touching, and funny remembrances by friends. Once the service was over Jennifer gave her remembrance and then showed a video of Ann's stand-up comedy routine. Everyone applauded like she was there in the room with us. I laughed at her jokes like I always did. It was a perfect and fitting ending to a very personal memorial service.