Amanda A., you are missed

My good friend and racing companion, Adrian, suffered a one of the most terrible losses imaginable--his wife, Amanda, recently lost her battle with Leukemia. Amanda was such a wonderful person, she is already missed.

When I had a house-warming party, Adrian and Amanda brought a present with a hand-made "welcome home" card. I only noticed the lack of bar-code and branding after a few days. That is my favorite memory of her!

She had impeccable taste in movies, too. She loved to talk about movies and I quickly learned to take movie recommendations from her seriously. When her facebook page demanded people to see Slumdog, I told myself it would be the next movie I saw in the theater, and it was. Later that night, it stole all the Oscars.

It was evident that Amanda and Adrian were really, really happy together. They had a very healthy respect for one another as spouses-- I learned a lot from watching them. I mean, how many husbands are allowed to buy a car and turn it into a racecar!? Her response, "Psh... its HIS money; I don't care." During one of my visits to her while she was in the hospital, she asked me to simply keep Adrian occupied with car-stuff. She was that self-less.

Adrian blogged that Amanda didn't think she mattered to this world and thought she was destined to be forgotten. Well, I will certainly never forget her. My direct interactions with here, while limited (most of my time was spent with her husband), made long-lasting memories. She touched many lives. She mattered.