It was about two weeks ago when it dawned on TigerBlog that the 25th anniversary of the comeback game at the Palestra between Princeton and Penn was right around the corner.
If you haven't read his feature story from the game that ran last week, you can still see it HERE.
Then, last week, Diana Chamorro his former colleague in the Office of Athletic Communications, stopped by to visit. Diana hasn't been in Princeton since she left here to go back to her home state of California.
How long had it been? TigerBlog wouldn't have guessed it, but it's been 10 years.
Where does the time go?
TigerBlog mentioned recently the anniversary of his daily streak of writing here when it reached 15 uninterrupted years. Again, has it really been that long?
It's a strange dynamic, the way it becomes difficult to remember how long ago something was. TigerBlog can remember scores of games from decades ago, high schools where Princeton athletes went — and yet the one thing he struggles with is class years, especially if Player A graduated before or after Player B.
Why is that?
Maybe it's because he doesn't think of how much time has elapsed. You only think back to the event, the day, the memory — or the person.
And for today, that person is Lorin Maurer.
As you should know by now, every year on this date, TB writes about his former friend and colleague, Lorin, who was killed in a plane crash on her way to Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009. That's 15 years ago today.
It's been a decade and a half, and yet the details of that awful few hours remain vivid.
TigerBlog had been in a meeting that Lorin had also been a part of that afternoon. Lorin needed to leave quickly afterwards; she had to catch a flight to Buffalo for the wedding of her boyfriend's brother.
She had just turned 30. She was the liaison between the Department of Athletics and the team's Friends' Groups.
Lorin was a former Academic All-American swimmer at Rowan College in South Jersey. She had recently found love.
She was fun and funny. She was easy to get along with, and she loved to be a part of the group of young people in the athletic department. She had made great friends here.
When the meeting ended, TigerBlog went back to his office, which was still on the Jadwin Gym mezzanine. Shortly afterwards, Lorin walked by on her way to the parking lot and did what she always did — smiled.
Then she was off. And she had the tragic misfortune to be one of the 50 people (49 on the plane, one on the ground) who died when the plane went down short of the Buffalo airport late that night.
TigerBlog went to bed completely unaware that anything had happened. He woke up to an email from then Director of Athletics Gary Walters, explaining that Lorin Maurer had died.
TB can still feel the shivers he felt when he read the email. It seemed so impossible. How could she be gone?
She'd just been there, hours before. She was so full of life and energy. All that wasted? All that she had to offer the world lost forever? No way. It couldn't be true.
Sadly, it was. The rest of that day was spent fielding requests from local and national media to find out about Lorin, to see where she worked. There was a basketball game that night, with a moment of silence. Mostly, there were her stunned and inconsolable friends here.
Some of them are still here. Most of the people who knew Lorin from the department have moved on.
For the ones who knew her, you know what a special person she was, and you feel her loss regularly, and not just on this sad anniversary.
And for those who didn't? Just know that Lorin Maurer used to work here, used to be a big part of the culture here and used to bring that smile with her to work every day.
She's gone, horribly, for 15 years now.
She is still not forgotten — nor will she ever be.
It was a great weekend for Princeton Athletics, and there's plenty of time this week to talk about it. Today?
Feb. 12 belongs to Lorin Maurer.
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