I first met Colleen 10 years ago as freshman at Illinois Wesleyan, where we joined the same sorority and lived in the AGD house together for a few semesters. After graduating college, Colleen was the only person I knew who lived in Chicago and while at the time we were more acquaintances than friends, she dropped everything to help me move and welcome me to the city. After that we became great friends and even lived together for a year up until early 2020. 

In the ten years I knew Colleen, I’ve been around long enough to share with you all some great examples of the kind of friend she was:

She was loud. My first distinct memories of Colleen were when we moved into the AGD sorority house. You could hear her from a floor away if she ever got excited or heated about something. At parties you knew exactly where she was before you saw her. And don’t get me started on how loud she was when she got competitive - whether it was watching the cubs or calling out cheaters while playing board games. 

She was messy. In the sorority house she was known for her mess and piles of clothes. Sometimes you couldn’t even see the floor. And when we lived together as adults, I’d come home to her baking up a storm with every single surface of the kitchen covered - you couldn’t even see the counter. But an hour later I’d come back to a sparkling clean kitchen because she knew messes stressed me out. Although I hear she only did that for me and usually left her mom to clean up after her if she was cooking at home. 

She was selfless. She dropped anything to help the people she cared about. The day I moved to Chicago by myself she spent half the day with me helping coordinate everything. And after a college friend of mine passed away suddenly, she canceled her plans and came over with ice cream and Pride and Prejudice trivial pursuit to cheer me up. 

She was pushy - but in the best way possible. She always pushed me to do things outside of my comfort zone and it usually worked out in her favor. Like the time she wanted to sing Karaoke which is one of my biggest fears. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, and even though I hated it the entire time, afterwards I was so happy I did it. She was always there when me or our friends needed a push to do something we were scared to try - cheering us on the entire time. By the way, Colleen was a hit and had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hands every time we went back to that Karaoke bar.

She was extremely charitable - in a way that kind of made you feel bad about yourself for not being as charitable as her. Like when I would come home from work and she was on the couch making blankets for a charity, or when she tried to get me to join a few of the organizations she was a part of, or volunteer at a soup kitchen. She always tried to get me to do good things with her. Is there such a thing as being too good of an influence? Because that was Colleen.

She was overly trusting. One time a homeless man outside of her grocery store told her she had something on the bottom of her foot, so she took off her shoe to check and the man grabbed her foot and licked it. That was the origin of her least favorite nick name, Left Foot. 

She was so incredibly easy to rile up. One time she was talking about her dream marriage proposal, and I jokingly proposed to her so I could tell her future husband he wasn’t the first to do it. She was not happy about that. But she gave as good as got and we spent the majority of our friendship bickering over everything just like sisters. She loved to tell me her kids would be the boss of my kids one day, so I’d tell her my kids would probably beat hers up on the playground. But I think if our future kids ever did get the chance to meet they’d be best friends despite their differences, just like Col and I. 

And last but not least, she was the funniest person I knew. Whether it was dreaming up funny startups or crazy inventions, sending 30 straight texts during an Uber ride about how horrible her driver was or coming up with puns, she was always doing something to make people around her laugh. Her quick wit and way with words made her humor unforgettable.