I don’t know how to write about Maggie because whatever I write will definitely not fairly portray the impact that Maggie had on my life, after spending only one afternoon with her.
From the second I saw Maggie, I fell in love with her. Just a glimpse of her energy and her smile did it. Norman, Ana Luisa and I went to Corbeil-Essonnes to meet her and her family after Debby Waldman introduced us with the pretext that the Browns were spending some time in Paris.
Maggie came to pick us up at the train station in her wonderful, very yellow, super cute, European car. She made a quick, impressive turn with the car to park where we could see her, and gave us the biggest, happiest, warmest smile, accompanied with the biggest, happiest, most-welcoming arm wave you can imagine. She had never met us before. This moment is one of those that is engrained forever in my memory.
Then she drove us to her house and introduced us to her world, to the people she loved and the place where they lived. I remember that day as it I were living in a French novel. The food, the house, the light… It was all so incredibly beautiful!
But the best part, of course, was talking to Denis, Maggie and their children. Oh, my gosh! How to describe the impact that some people have one one’s life without ever being aware of it?
After only a few hours I felt close to everyone, as if we had been friends forever.
I will never forget sitting beside Dennis while he showed me some of his notes full of numbers and funny symbols because I interrogated him intensely on what his work “looked like”. I will never forget the warmth and kindness that Malcolm showed while telling Ana Luisa about life in France. They were both looking so happy talking, eating, laughing. I will never forget how enthralled Norman was on whatever Maggie was telling him-----because Maggie’s adventures! So wonderful! So many!
You could tell that everything in life she lived like a great, wonderful adventure. That she squeezed the life out of every second that she had. Her family, her work, her travels, her house, her car, her yellow motorcycle, her trips… It all seemed intensely beautiful because she made it intensely beautiful. That is why we felt so close, so loved--- just a second after meeting her.
I really do not have words for the impact she had on me. I am not exaggerating or lying when I say that, after that day, many years ago, I think about Maggie every week, two or three times a week. And I know exactly when I think about Maggie. I think about Maggie when I feel a little lost, a little insecure, when I question who I am, what I am doing, and why I am doing it for. Then I use Maggie as a beacon. I think of Maggie as someone that I want to emulate. I think that I want to live life the way Maggie always did: with seemingly-endless energy and passion, with unrestrained joy, with the greatest love.
I will miss Maggie dearly, after spending only a few hours of my life with her.