Kathy and I were very good friends in high school.  She was cute, petite and funny, and we had many laughs together.    I have fond memories of going to her house after school where we would do homework, smoke cigarettes and talk about boys.  I remember Kathy hated her given name Hester and always said “Why would anyone name their child Hester?”  Come to find out,  it was a family name!  Kathy’s family took me on vacation with them the summer after graduation and we stayed at a big beach house on the Chesapeake Bay.  We had some great times as we embarked on the next chapter of our lives post-graduation.  Later that summer, Kathy began employment as a legal secretary in Upper Marlboro and she was able to get me a part time job in her office until I went off to college at the University of Md in the fall.  I saw Kathy one time after I started college.  She had just gotten married and I met her husband and we reminisced about old times and caught up on what we’d been doing.  As so often happens with childhood friends, life took us down different paths and we lost touch after that.   I was very saddened when I heard of her passing some years later.   Like many others in our class, Kathy was taken from us far too soon.  RIP my dear friend.