Marisa Gonzales, friend and colleague

I, along with 3 other young women, lived with Jen in Elizabeth, NJ while we taught in the local public schools. While I was overwhelmed every day with the task of teaching these kids, Jen approached the job of teaching English to 150 ninth graders with such self-confidence and self-assuredness.  She took the job incredibly seriously.  She was determined to show her kids every day how much she cared about them and believed in them, and she was hellbent on getting them to read, showing them the beauty and power of YA literature. And she did this all while insisting that they leave their desks in tidy, straight rows!  Although I never saw her in the classroom, I know that she brought her characteristic unbridled enthusiasm and energy to Elizabeth High School (and I’m sure everywhere else she taught) every day.  She brought that same enthusiasm to our NJ kitchen, where she and Mark experimented with cooking recipes from her favorite Moosewood cookbooks. Their lentil burgers were a bit of a flop, as I remember, but she just laughed and laughed about them.  I will forever cherish the recipe she sent me in ’94 for "Penne with Sweet and Sour Onion Sauce” written in her beautiful, exacting handwriting.

Jen was a second mom to our oldest daughter, Nina, while she attended WashU. Jen kindly let her store her stuff at her home over breaks, and she gave Nina a couch that she has to this day. It will be very, very hard to ever get rid of that couch.

I will miss Jen’s sweet notes at the bottom of the Christmas letters that she and Mark have sent each year.  I am deeply saddened that her life has been cut so short, but I know that all of us who will miss her terribly are better humans because of her.