vc

i never called kathy kathy when she was with us...her sense of professional ethics wouldn't allow it...even though i was around two years older than she i was still an undergraduate student and there were boundaries she was unwilling to cross...she told me verbally and in a number of emails that she thought of me more as a friend than a student so after her passing i presumed to put us on a first name basis...not that i called her dr. forgey while she was here...we had nicknames for one another...mine came first and is irrelevant...she was "morning glory" for a bit after a phrase in an email exchange but she said that sounded "too sweet" and wanted something more in line with her feisty character...i don't really know if vc is feisty...but it's the name that stuck...it came from one of her extremely rare typos...she had just sent me a draft slathered in red bullets ( and, invariably, the last red bullet would say "good work"...just so i wouldn't be despondent over revisions ) and in the covering emails she said " maybe you should call me 'vc' for vicious slave driver "...she caught and acknowledged the typo in her next email but smart ass that i am i hammered the nickname home...she was gracious and accepted it, signing off with it in every following email right up to the one she sent me the day she died ( which, by the way, ended with the phrase "get back to work" )...last year i said the sting had faded a bit...maybe i was distracted by other events...not so this year...i still have friends i value a great deal among her colleagues and i am grateful for them...but this still smarts three years later...take good care kathy...would seriously like to see you again one day.