The world is a little more impoverished without Lillian in it, but she certainly left it better that she found it.
As a graduate student, I always knew I could find Lillian hard at work at the end of the corridor. Since leaving more than a decade ago, I have entertained a naive belief that I could return anytime and be welcomed by her into that same office or into the home in which she and Mark so often entertained. Sadly, that is no longer the case.
Some of my fondest memories of Lillian are from a trip we took together in October of 2004 to give talks and workshops at the Universidad de Los Andes in Merida, Venezuela. The attached pictures are from that trip. One shows her intently asking questions about batteries and bulbs using the Spanish version of the tutorial. Afterward, we had a wonderful time debriefing that session over dinner and a bottle of wine. At one point in the evening, there was a power cut in the hotel. The darkness didn't stop us. We kept on talking and pouring wine until the lights finally came back on. That is how I will remember Lillian. She was intensely yet joyfully engaged and nothing in the world could stop her.
