Meae Amicae

Jeannette Faurot, Karen Stolz, Nicole Domingue.

Fio met Jeannette through church, but bonded with her over academics. She was a Chinese scholar, and Fio thinks Jeannette would be happy to know that Fio can now reel off a few Mandarin words and phrases.

Karen, whom Fio met while they were both teaching at Austin community college, wrote one novel that sold well and one that didn't, then died too soon. Fio hopes she's looking down from her celestial heights and blessing Fio's own road to publication.

Nicole and Fio, as she's told you, met in graduate school. They shared not only an interest in linguistics and a love for music, but an appreciation of each other and a totally irreverent view of the world.

Requiescat in pacem, meae amicae.

Nicole Domingue, In Memoriam

My friend Nicole has died, and I, who always have so many words, am struggling to find what to say, how to explain what she meant to me.

Nicole Marie Zuber Domingue and I met in an intensified summer Hindi class at The University of Texas. We were both working on our doctorates in linguistics, and both were specializing in Indian studies. We met over academics, but we bonded in laughter. Nothing was sacred to this vivacious, down-to-earth Frenchwoman. She saw the basic absurdity of life and reveled in it. Everything and everyone was game for her quick wit.

After graduate school, she and her family moved first to Indiana, then to Canada, but we stayed in touch. We had to--we were part of each other.

And now part of me is gone.