This, my friends, is my post to profess my love to Maria and acknowledge the bittersweet mix of joy and grief that thirty years of shared memories bring. We recently lost someone Maria had grown close to over the years—her sister, whose name I’ll keep private out of respect for her wishes. She was a complicated person, but Maria managed to break through that tough exterior and unlock the deep love inside. That loss, along with other unexpected departures from our wider circle