We always said we'd catch up, Neha. After the months I was gone, I was so delighted to see your smiling face come around the corner of your kitchen wall, before you squealed and ran over to grab me out of my chair. You threw me into a huge hug; the kind of warm hug after a long absence that you never want to leave; the kind of hug that leaves you helpless to do anything but close your eyes and surrender; a hug between good friends. No words, just a hug, and we shelved months of life stories for the night. Then we did it again the next few times we passed one another. It kills me that I let you slip by and never got that chance again.
I know that for many friends both on staff here, on campus and around the world, the experience was similar. To lose someone so close and so young shakes you to the core. Almost none of us has known someone in our short lives who died so young. It pushed all of us to a place we had never been, and to which we hope never to return.
Another semester concludes here but it would be wrong of me to say it was one like any other. We all lost a friend this semester. A partner in mischief. A classmate. A family member.
At this point I guess it doesn't really matter what I say, but that I say it. The lingering grief is the one thing that I find truly difficult to put into words in my overly articulate, journalistic existence, so I'll just say it as a friend. Although, between the beautiful words exchanged in the confidence of friends and the touching sentiments shared publicly, maybe it's all been said already by people much more eloquent than I. We miss you, dear. Every day. The wounds have begun to heal, but you are still very much in our hearts as we close a semester without you. Rest in peace, sweetie. And I owe you one monster of a hug when we meet again. We'll have a lot to share.
To honor Neha's memory, the UW-Madison Department of Political Science and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, in partnership with The Daily Cardinal Alumni Association, have established The Neha Suri Scholarship Fund for UW-Madison students majoring in journalism and/or political science. If you would like to donate to the fund, contact Jennifer Karlson at the UW Foundation, (608) 262-7225, or donate online at www.uwfoundation.wisc.edu.
