Aimee Jo O’Connor
died at the age of 54 because she chose to work with people afflicted with
COVID.
Keeping them alive
resulted in her death.
That makes her a hero
in my book as much as a soldier killed in action defending America.
There was a tsunami
of support for Aimee’s father, Bill O’Connor, former columnist and feature
writer for the BJ.
Bill was so
impressed and appreciative that he wanted me to post his thank-you on the blog.
He tried mailing TWO Aimee memorial
cards (see the photo montage above) but the Postal Service returned Bill’s first mailing to me
because Bill sent it to 271 instead of the correct 217 N Thomas Road in Tallmadge.
So, at my
suggestion, he drove to my Tallmadge condo and handed me the Aimee memorial
card. Later, after a delightful 2-hour visit with Bill when we exchanged memories of the joys of working at the BJ, I went to my mailbox and found the 2nd Aimee card Bill mailed to me that had the correct 217 Thomas Road address.
When Aimee was a
child, a teacher asked students to select a poem that reflected what they
wanted to do in life. She chose these lines from Emily Dickenson:
If I can
stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not
live in vain;
If I can ease
one life from aching,
Or cool one
pain,
Or help one
fainting robin
Unto his nest
again,
I shall not
live in vain.
Well, Aimee did not live in vain. There are with COVID who owe her
their lives because they still are alive.
Aimee was born in Havre, Montana to Bill and wife Jacquelyne Tarr O’Connor. The family moved to Ohio where Bill wound up
one of many exceptional writers at the BJ.
Aimee got into a business but she wanted
something else. So she became a nurse.
Bill and his Swiss miss second wife Elsbeth (since
2002) live in Bath Township.
They both have four adult children from previous
marriages.
Bill and Elsa took a trip recently to Switzerland
to visit Elsa’s friends and places of her early life.
When Bill visited me to do the post office’s job
for it we had long, great conversation about the joy it was to work at the BJ,
with JSK, Fran Murphey, Pat Englehart and a Hall of Fame newsroom.
Once in love with Aimee, as Bill is, always in love
with Aimee. And, as Bill and I are, always in love with our years at the BJ.
Aimee is, indeed, as Bill has said and written, a
hero who did not die in vain. Just ask the families of COVID patients who still
are alive today because of her.
