Mary was such a classy lady. We both joined the forum in the same month back in 2014, and I can remember reading her posts for the first couple of years, but never had any direct conversations with her. She did put likes on a lot of my posts, though
Back in May of 2017, I started a thread honoring the 50th anniversary of my brother's death in RVN. I mentioned that I really didn't know much about him, as I was only five when he was KIA and all of my family had passed that I could get any information from by that point. Soon after, Mary PM'd me and asked if I would mind if she did some research into Daniel's life and death. I told her that I would be very grateful if she did. She must have spent several hours digging up information on Daniel and his daughter and my sister in law who cut ties with my family soon after Daniel's death. It allowed me to reconnect with his daughter, Laura, my niece who is only a few months younger than me.
Over the years, Mary would PM me occasionally to congratulate me over events that I posted about such as kids graduations, kids getting accepted into college, and most recently when my son, Joshua received his commission as a Navy Ensign.
I miss her terribly. She was so knowledgeable about so many topics, and those she wasn't, she had an insatiable need to learn about them.
I never met her in person, nor even ever talked to her on the phone. But I'll never forget a post she made talking about when her and Hubby would ride around on their motorcycle and he would have to turn the intercom off because she could be such a chatterbox. Just something about that struck me as so funny and I got a really good laugh out of it. It made me think of her as a person who was so full of life and had the gift of gab and loved sharing it with everyone around her. She was truly a beacon of light and hope on this forum, and it is diminished considerably with her passing.

Back in May of 2017, I started a thread honoring the 50th anniversary of my brother's death in RVN. I mentioned that I really didn't know much about him, as I was only five when he was KIA and all of my family had passed that I could get any information from by that point. Soon after, Mary PM'd me and asked if I would mind if she did some research into Daniel's life and death. I told her that I would be very grateful if she did. She must have spent several hours digging up information on Daniel and his daughter and my sister in law who cut ties with my family soon after Daniel's death. It allowed me to reconnect with his daughter, Laura, my niece who is only a few months younger than me.
Over the years, Mary would PM me occasionally to congratulate me over events that I posted about such as kids graduations, kids getting accepted into college, and most recently when my son, Joshua received his commission as a Navy Ensign.
I miss her terribly. She was so knowledgeable about so many topics, and those she wasn't, she had an insatiable need to learn about them.
I never met her in person, nor even ever talked to her on the phone. But I'll never forget a post she made talking about when her and Hubby would ride around on their motorcycle and he would have to turn the intercom off because she could be such a chatterbox. Just something about that struck me as so funny and I got a really good laugh out of it. It made me think of her as a person who was so full of life and had the gift of gab and loved sharing it with everyone around her. She was truly a beacon of light and hope on this forum, and it is diminished considerably with her passing.