My Con Law professor, Joan Fitzpatrick, died on Friday.

I just found it. I can't believe it, just like that. She was a brilliant and passionate woman, and the Human Rights prof at the Law School. I remember talking with her in her office... she had agreed to be my faculty advisor for my summer internship. I had asked her for advice regarding career direction. She was supposed to teach a lighter load this upcoming fall, because she was going to help her son apply to college. I was planning to take at least two of her classes next year, because she was taking a sabbatical in 04-05 to do some fieldwork research on human rights issues in Iraq.

I remember bumping into her on the street one time, and felt pleased that she remembered my name.

She unexpectedly stopped teaching our class a week ago, due to some health problems. We thought she just needed to take it easy. We knew that she had been hit by a car while crossing the street during Spring Break, and wasn't feeling too well all quarter. We even signed a get-well card for her.

She was still so young. She couldn't have been older than my mother. Her work, her ideas, her presence, her life... just gone.

I still have the book she loaned me. I'm not sure what to do with it now.