When I was scanning the obituaries published in Monday's Mercury, I recognized a familiar name, and I felt a pang of surprise and sadness. The woman, who died in her mid 70s, was not a friend or relative. In fact, I never met her. But I felt as if I knew her.
She was one of my "regulars" -- the readers who call or visit or email on a regular basis to tell me their theories, their opinions and their news tips. I am certain if any of my regulars are reading this, you know who you are.
One sends me postcards or letters on motorcycle notepad. He often disagrees with my opinions, but we became instant friends the day I called him on the phone to tell him I valued his thoughts.
Two of them are retired local businesspeople of some prominence who cheer on my efforts to lead community-minded news coverage. One of those is a shameless flirt.
Another is an elderly woman who headed a newsworthy organization for many years and knew me as a reporter before I was an editor.
The woman who died last weekend was a reader who liked to let us know, sometimes with an exaggerated reality, what was going on in her municipality. I knew several years ago that she had moved, because the place in need of "investigating" shifted from one town to another.
Sometimes, I don't hear from someone, a regular letter writer for example who likes to hand-deliver his letters to the newsroom, for a few months and then I learn there was an illness or a hospitalization.
And then I recognize a name in the obituary columns and know I won't be hearing from that person again.
We hear from a lot of people in the course of our days in the newsroom -- some less pleasant than others -- but I find a certain comfort in the predictability of my regulars. This week, they are one less.