For someone who did not exactly have it easy, Mimi miraculously maintained a near-constant pleasant disposition, and was selfless in her support/excitement for others. During my PhD thesis seminar, I have a vivid memory of seeing Mimi’s gleeful smile standing out in the crowd. When I told Mimi that Sara and I were engaged to be married, Mimi’s excitement was unparalleled. She shrieked in excitement in what can only be described as complete jubilation.
After each summer, winter, and spring break during my time at Colby, Mimi used to send me back to school with a box of her famous homemade chocolate chip cookies! Shortly after Sara and I started dating, I told Mimi that she loved the cookies. Mimi was likely worried about my prospects of maintaining Sara as my girlfriend. Sure enough, on my next trip back to Colby she supplied me with twooverflowing boxes of cookies and notified me that one was “to be shared with Sara”
When I was ~10 years old, I maneuvered a rubber band around the spray hose on the sink, so the next person to turn it on would get sprayed with a face full of water. This “trick” that I thought was hilarious ending up taking Mimi as it’s next victim. Rather than be furious, which would have been understandable, Mimi found it hilarious! She proceeded to tell me “not to turn the hose on her” for the next 20+ years. I will miss that.