I got a phone call last night from a hysterical friend. One of the technicians that we worked with at my previous job was killed in a car accident.

Freckles and Melanie

We shared a love of Rick Riordan books. She kept me updated whenever the new ones were coming out. In fact, the last time I messaged her on Facebook was about the last book. I saw it in the bookstore and wanted to know why she had not warned me. Just because I moved away was no reason to abandon her responsibilities.

I used to joke with her about being the poster child for not doing drugs while pregnant. Her birth mother was an addict who surrendered her at birth. She had several congenital problems such as scoliosis and she developed glaucoma as a teenager leading to partial blindness. She had a great attitude about it all. In fact she called herself a mutant and had just had the mutant symbol from X Men tattooed on her.

Freckles and Melanie too

Freckles says that she could still give a mean belly rub though.

I made her a quilt last year from the T shirts that her mother had been saving ever since she had heard that T shirt quilts were possible.

Mel's t shirt quilt

She was a famously horrible driver. In the few years I knew her I think she had totaled 4 cars. I’m not sure if it was her vision or what. I used to tell her that she wasn’t allowed to park by my car in case she would hit it. She was never injured in any of her accidents though. But last night her luck ran out. She lost control on her way home from work and hit a tree and was killed.

I feel horrible for her parents. They were a very close family. She was their only child.

RIP Melanie. You will be missed.