Richer by Helen

I am sad to report the passing of Helen Fisher yesterday, one of our own, a long-time colleague at Editorial Code and Data, Inc. In our company’s twenty-two year history, we have said good-bye to two wonderful editors, Linda Schmittroth and Helen. Helen was a genuine original, a tiny little lady with a great love of words, a ferocious researcher, a very skilled writer, and the most entertaining and funny storyteller we’ve ever known. So she got up this morning, still half asleep, and worming her arms into a dressing gown, she stumbled a little on her way to the kitchen to fix herself a cup of coffee—when she saw, my God!, a strange man lying, stark naked, sleeping on her living room couch… Thus began Helen’s tales. And they grew in the telling. People gathered around to listen to her, completely mesmerized, and laughter welled up in spontaneous gales as she proceeded. Our Helen of Joy. She died relatively young of a brain injury suffered in a fall at the hospital where she had been admitted for treatment for dehydration. Heaven is richer by Helen’s passing.