Complex Numbers

Sad News

Just received word that my aunt died this morning.

Not really unexpected - she was close to 90 and just basically died of old age.

But she was someone I was close to all my life, my mom's sister, who took me to Europe and Israel when I was eight, taught me how to use a computer shortly thereafter, and gave me my first summer internship... sort of.

She was a businesswoman in a world where women were supposed to be housewives or secretaries; a childfree single woman in a world where women were expected to have kids, not jobs, for fulfillment; an educator and a strong role model for both men and women. A feminist before feminism was cool.

She was a true New Yorker, having lived in the city all her life. Yet, she had the good fortune to travel around the world. She was witty, vibrant, and never took shit from anyone without giving it back tenfold.

She ran her own business school for many years, which I'm sure improved the lives of many people. The world is truly a little bit better for her having been in it.

So, soon, I'll be heading up to New York, where she'll be buried out on Long Island, not too far from her longtime home in Queens.

So long, Aunt Adele. Of all the people in the world that I miss, you're at the top of the list.