AIMEE GAVE HER LIFE ... LITERALLY ... SO THAT OTHERS MAY LIVE

 

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.