For those who have never watched an episode of Returning the Favor, Mike Rowe’s facebook show, you are missing out. It is delightful and uplifting. A recent episode on the Can Lady featured Mary Stumpp, an alumna of the Delta Gamma chapter at DePauw University. The Can Lady is doing good!
***
On Tuesday morning, I awoke to an email that my Pi Phi friend MaryMargaret McDonough had passed away on Monday. I was in shock and heartbroken. I cannot remember when we first met, but it would have been at an Officer Workshop or at a Pi Phi Convention. All I can remember is that we would laugh. She told the best stories and as a native Long Islander, I was on the same wavelength as she was. She hailed from New Jersey and joined the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Maryland. She was a Terp through and through.
I remember celebrating the centennial of my chapter with her and Julie Geiger (Shannon) Mercer in 1996 in Syracuse, MaryMargaret was our driver and we three shared a room. We laughed the entire time. Over the years, whenever MaryMargaret and I were at the same events, there was always laughter. While I can’t remember the conversations, I cherish the laughter.
In early 2000, when my family was in Connecticut visiting relatives, I took the train to NYC and toured the Beekman Tower Hotel, visited the Baird Collection at the New York Public Library (before it was on the internet), and I met MaryMargaret for lunch near her office which overlooked Gramercy Park.
Years later, when my daughter and I did one of our treks to Broadway, we met MaryMargaret for an early dinner, between the matinée and the evening performance. She was the first of my Pi Phi friends to meet my daughter. I remember we met at the Applebees in Times Square. Needless to say, there was a great deal of laughter that evening.
Last year, when Pi Beta Phi celebrated its 150th, MaryMargaret came to the convention and we had a chance to visit again. I can’t remember if we ate a meal together, but we knew that we would be on the bus to the post-convention tour to Monmouth and that we would have lots of time together then. We had the chance to catch up with each other and we laughed and laughed. Laughter is how we both made it through the rough spots in our lives. I had stashed my luggage in her room before we headed to Monmouth and when I gave her a hug as I left her room with my suitcases, I had no clue it would be the last time I would see her on this earth. I would have hugged her longer and I would have let her know once more what her friendship has meant to me over the years.
Rest in peace dear friend, until our paths cross again.
