Another page turned...

I knew I should have logged off a while ago. If I had, then I wouldn't have refreshed my Yahoo! page, and I wouldn't have read that Evan Hunter (aka Ed McBain) has died.

I don't know much about Evan Hunter (besides the fact that that's not his real name) but I did have the good fortune to meet him once when he was the featured speaker at one of my dad's West Virginia Library Appreciation Day Dinners. In a strange coincidence pre-dating the dinner by a few years, he once based a minor character in one of his novels on my grandma, who used to volunteer at a hospital in Florida and who was very strict about visting hours and the like. Apparently, her dedication to enforcing such rules perturbed him on more than one occasion; as a result, the character he created was not exactly a flattering portrait.

Grandma was a great lady, though, very kind and smart and funny, and always up for playing "Go Fish" with me. Sure, sometimes she would get on a streak and yammer til the cows came home, forcing us to take refuge in my brother's room for a quick reprieve, but then, what relative doesn't get on your nerves once in a while? Grandma died when I was 16--I'm turning 34 in a couple of weeks (presents, yay)--and while I miss her and wish I could talk to her again, it's kind of comforting to know that I can pick up a book and see that someone's immortalized her, warts and all.

Ok, mostly warts.