I met Darlene in the early 90s when she came to Tandem computers as an educational consultant. As I was not a member of that organizational group, I only worked with her infrequently until a couple of years later when a similar project was handed to me. Within minutes, I was on the phone with Darlene. We worked together for perhaps four years as the projects continued to grow as did our friendship. My fondest memories from that period are our working trips to Europe -- particularly Amsterdam. As someone has mentioned in their story, Darlene did NOT like to fly. On a working trip to San Diego , I saw her reactions -- sweaty palms, nausea, pale beyond belief -- and the flight was smooth. Not a bump in a cloudless California sky that day. Months later, having forgotten about her frantic flight tendencies, I asked her to help me roll-out the program she had built to our European sales offices. Without hesitation, she signed on and the issue of flying was forgotten -- at least by me. In Amsterdam, she was a hoot - we ran around (of course, after working diligently all day) shopping for gorgeous shoes and terrific woolens. We sneaked away for day time trips to museums -- the old masters in the Stedelijk Museums really looked old and dark, but Van Gogh museum was marvelous. As it was summer and the daylight hours were lengthy, we walked Vondelpark which was not too far from the hotel. Along one of these walks, I discovered Darlene's passion for gardening. And, attending a concert in Vondelpark one night, she revealed her rock&roll side -- I was traveling with a crazy woman. When you work in an industry where women were less than a quarter of the workforce, you are overjoyed when a soul-friend comes your way! Our work lives parted sometime later, but we remained friends -- she visited my summer house in North Carolina where she designed and even helped plant an herb garden. In '97 she flew to Santa Barbara (her university town) for my graduation from Fielding Institute. Along with my family, she partied the night away! In the weeks before Darlene died, we recalled our travels together -- she revealed the long flight to Amsterdam did not frighten her -- it was the short hops that were problematic. How could that be? We had a good giggle over that. Life is not the same without Darlene's crazy sense of humor, her zinging commentary on politics, her beautiful rose garden and charming cards. Her love of good food should not be overlooked and her caring friendship-- I miss her greatly! She truly enhanced and enlarged the lives of those around her.