11/09/2025
Though I feel sad on this day every year for all the sweet souls our nation lost, I also smile and laugh, thinking about my friend’s goofy, quirky side and random coincidences. I’m writing to share memories with you as much as to process my own thoughts.
As many of you wrote, Mari-Rae was our Fremd HS classmate and good friend. She was also a PERSISTENT friend. I lost touch with her after HS. She found me in DC and became a good friend during an important period in my life. No matter how many times I fell out of touch, she’d always find me.
At National Airport. Running along Rock Creek Parkway. Sitting in an Adams Morgan coffee shop. Walking in Kalorama Triangle. Browsing a Dupont Circle bookstore. Working out in Woodley Park. If we were far apart, moving in opposite directions, she’d run towards me, shouting “SHRUTHII! SHRUTHI! SHRUTHI!” until I turned to see her 😂.
We had much in common, yet nothing in common. We were both lawyers, single, trying to figure out our lives, relationships, searching for our dream jobs, and overcoming similar health issues.
She was always a step ahead of me, figuratively and literally (she was a super-fast walker and talker as her friends and family know 😂). She had her important papers in order, including her will (due to her JAG job) My papers were everywhere and I still hadn’t completed my will.
And she actually found her dream job as the head coach of the women’s gymnastic team at University of California, Santa Barbara and she’d be moving there soon!
The night before she boarded AA Flight 77 to begin her new life and dream job in California, she and I had dinner together. Just the two of us. A small dinner right before her big goodbye dinner. I was already sitting down. She swooped in, twirling, arms out, like a plane, almost singing “I’m finally flying out tomorrow!”
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