Chalita Thanyakoop

     I met Nammon at Brewster Academy’s Summer Program during her first year in the US.  I was a TA; and she was one of the many Thai students.  Towards the end of the summer, most students and TAs went off to their schools and so few of the students were left.  I was called to her dorm in the middle of the night when she, along with the other girls, got spooked by the quiet dorm rooms. 

     I didn’t see Nammon again until several years later when she moved to UC Santa Barbara for graduate school.  Her apartment building was right next to mine and we got to know each other more. The real fun, though, started when I needed a new roommate, and she needed a new apartment.  Nammon moved in as my apartment-mate and I slowly realized I had struck the mother lode of an ideal roommate in Nammon. 

     Nammon was a confident and cheerful young woman. Gone was the girl easily spooked.  And never again did she have to worry about not having people around.  Nammon had become extraordinary at making friends.  Extraordinary.   She was proactive at reaching out to people.  She listened carefully to their wants, needs, dreams, and problems.  And she cared.  Genuinely cared.  She remembered birthdays.  She sent people handmade cards, cookies, candies, stuffed animals, cough drops, blankets, knick-knacks-- all the thing you want from a mom.  It was hard not to love her.  Nammon herself had gone back to Brewster’s Summer Program as a TA for many years and she kept in touch with her old students.  During school breaks, our apartment was teeming with her old students coming to visit.  A few of them had started to call her Mom.  She really made them, us, her family. 

     Nammon had kept her usual cheerfulness throughout her battle with breast cancer.   Even when her body was ravaged by the disease, she still made time to care for others.  When she passed, she was surrounded by people who loved her.  Those of us not fortunate enough to be there in person, were there with her with our thoughts and prayers.  I will miss her dearly.  But I also know she will never have to be alone.  Who knows?  She might be making new friends and showering them with gifts in heaven already.

Love,

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Chalita Thanyakoop

Berkeley, CA