My friend Alice

It’s too late to call Alice and say hello. It’s too late to say goodbye.

My friend Alice O’Reilly, a most extraordinary lady, died last week. She was gifted leader in her community, her church, and at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, an institution she loved with all her heart. Many people looked to Alice for guidance and encouragement and she was generous with both.

I met Alice when I was a reporter for the Eagle-Tribune and continued a telephone and card relationship with her after I left the newspaper. I made lots of promises to visit her over these last nine years and never followed through on one of them.

Life got in the way. There were things that needed to be done, whether real or perceived, and I never made the time to keep Alice closer to my heart. I spoke with her not too long ago and we talked about making a lunch date. It never happened.

I was in Washington DC last week when I stumbled across her obituary on the Boston Globe Web site. It took my breath away to read it and made me truly ashamed that I let a wonderful friendship slip away without knowing more about what was happening in my friend’s life.

I’ve since learned that she was seriously ill for some time. “I had no idea, she never said anything,” I said to the person who shared details of her death. “She wouldn’t have told you,” he said to me, “that wasn’t Alice’s way.”

I missed countless opportunities to keep Alice more an active part of my life. All I can be now is terribly sorry.


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On a related note, sort of, I let the entire summer go by and never kept a promise of a dinner date with my nephew Tom. He drove back to college yesterday, back to RIT in Rochester, NY. More opportunities lost… but a correction I’ll be able to make, if he’ll let me.

So, goodbye to Alice, who will always be in my heart. And a promise I promise I’ll keep to Tom the next time he has time for me.


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