Thinking of you, Doll

It's times like these, getting things ready for a big admissions program, when I think of Doll Dorsey. Doll worked in the admission office at Case Western Reserve University for what seemed like forever. She was kind. She was wise. She gave it to you straight. She was one of the best people I've ever known.

We lost Doll a little over a year ago. Cancer. Happened pretty fast. Publicly, anyway.

I remember one year when I was totally slammed, trying to get the confirmation packets out to the finalists for Case's prestigious Pre Professional Scholars Program. It was one of those typical things--get their admission letter, make sure it's signed by the Director, include with it their 'hey, you are so darn special that we're inviting you as a finalist letter,' and a bunch of other stuff, carefully place it all in the *right* Fed Ex envelope, and send them off. And as per usual, I needed to get this done before heading out on a recruiting trip the next morning.

So there I am, at the office, it's after 5, it's after 6, it's after 7, and I still have a mountain of work in front of me. By this time, the only people left in the building were my sorry ass and Doll--who was notorious for keeping late hours at work. Around 8 Doll popped her head into the work room where I was sweating away. She had her coat on, hat on, bag on her shoulder. She took one look at me, and dropped her bag, took off her hat, took off her coat, and got to work. She waved off my lame protests that she go home, and did what only the most bighearted people would do.

Make no mistake--she saved me that night. It wasn't the first time. I'm sure it wasn't the last time. And I wasn't the only one she helped out like that.

Doll was a treasure. I miss her.