A recent study says that reading more helps lower your heartrate, prevent cavities, free political prisoners, and feed slightly hungry children all over the world. Won’t you do your part? Read this, and these, and even some of this, if you’re feeling lucky. I wrote ‘em (well I only helped on the NYE one).

I was going to write something funny today about pirates, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I’ve been interning at Newcity for a few months now. About a week or two into the internship, another intern and I were sitting in the office when we were visited by an older man, maybe late 60s, a little hunched over. You could tell by his voice that he’d had problems with his throat, but he walked right over and introduced himself as Don. He explained how he worked part time at Accounts Recievable (“Don Vandermyde, Assistant Accounts Recievable Manager,” I later saw on the Newcity staff list), and then asked us about ourselves– where did we go to school, what we wanted to do, what we were interested in. We nodded and answered his questions, wondering who had sent this man to talk to us. He laughed the whole time. He shook our hands, he welcomed us to the paper, and promised to see us around.

We thought he was eccentric, but friendly is what he really was– something that, unfortunately, seems out of place in the modern world. I only saw him a few more times after that, either working around the office or in the hallways. The most we ever exchanged was a hello or two as we passed each other.

When I got home from work tonight, I got an email from the Newcity publisher. It said, “It is with extreme sadness that I write to inform you that Don Vandermyde passed away this afternoon.”

It also said, “Although deeply challenged by his battle with cancer these last few years, he carried on a manner that should inspire us: still working till his last day, still exploring the country and the planet as he so passionately enjoyed and, most of all, still deeply caring about the people he worked with, in such a way that he actively sought out the opportunity to get to know you, whatever your role or tenure at the company.”

As people go, I’m not that sensitive. I’m not going to pretend that I was his good friend, or even really knew him. There are many others who will know him much better, and mourn him much more than I ever do. And I’m not naive, either– people die every day. Thousands, millions of people I’ve never met meet their fates every day. Heck, you’re going to die someday, and I hardly know you. I’m going to die, and what do I know about anything?

Still, Don was nice to me. He was a face around the office. He was a person that I met, that, if nothing else, I shared a destination with for a little while. For me, he was here, and now he’s gone. And that, I think, is worth a little remembering.