My Friend Meredith

It has now been several weeks since the brutal slaying of Meredith Emerson, the University of Georgia graduate who was killed while hiking on Blood Mountain New Year's Day.

I have known Meredith for many years. She lived with my sister for a year, we had classes together in the French Department, and we both enjoyed a pint or two at Copper Creek on Tuesday nights. There really isn't much that I can add to what has already been said: Meredith really was a great person, usually (if not always) chipper, always friendly, possessed of a wicked sense of sarcasm and irony which never failed to amuse, willing and able to carry on an intelligent conversation on nearly any subject, and as sweet as the days are long. Truly, I am better off for having known her, and truly we are all worse off now that she's gone.

My sister has already done a better job memorializing her than I could hope to do. Her tragic and untimely death will always stick with me, and Tuesday nights over a cool pint at Copper Creek will, for me, be forever linked with her memory.