i never met leslie harpold. i never chatted with her on-line, gossiped with her on the phone or exchanged quipps with her via mail. yet every year since 2001 december 1st rolled around and she made my heart dance with joy with her annual advent calendar. everyday she delivered a special little gift brimming with tasty snippets of knowledge, delightful images, interesting links and deliciously sweet memories. we were strangers, but, for 25 days every december she became my dear friend sharing her life with me. her december departure is particularly poignant.
i know that there was so much more to leslie and that she touched many lives - you can see her fingerprints all over the web and the world. i hope everyone who knew leslie will continue her legacy of sharing memories, optimism and creativity with friends and small terrycloth strangers. think i'll go out and leave a finger print or two of my own in her honor... that and work the word hoopla into conversation a wee bit more.
2009 update: as the years past, the domains held by leslie have expired and her wonderful works have disappeared from public view. her advent calendars, her advice, photos and observations, gone. i wish i still had a copy of her thoughts on what heaven is.