I am, it is fair to say, one of the lousiest, laziest master gardeners in Chicago. I went through the 12-week training in early 2007; in the ensuing year you’re supposed to complete 60 hours of volunteer week to get your full MG certification. My tally has been stalled at about 30 for a while now.

Elizabeth Bruhns, the MG program coordinator, noticed I was lagging this spring, and got on my case about it. “We don’t want to lose you,” she said, and briskly moved my name from the list of 2008 graduates to those scheduled to wrap it up in 2009.

I didn’t know her well, but Elizabeth always seemed to me to just get things done, with little fuss, and I admired her for that. When I found out last week that she had died–suddenly, randomly, horribly–I was stunned.* I still am. But I am feeling a fresh surge of motivation to finish those volunteer credits. It seems the least I could do.

Here’s a nice obit from yesterday’s Tribune.

 

* I was also stunned and disturbed to learn that the bitterly funny and brilliantly talented Patrick Welch, who I knew slightly and whose work I liked a lot, died October 16. It’s been a bad week.