She's not supposed to be gone. I don't want to write about her in the past tense. I just don't.

But here I go:

Andrea Rich was one of the best people I've ever known. Hands down. And I know there are a lot of other people who feel the same way. Everyone in the libertarian movement knew her or knew of her. I had known about her for years, mostly from the little essay she would write on the inside of the Laissez Faire Books catalogue I received each month, but I didn't actually meet her until I was in my 30s (a big mistake on my part) and had just met my husband. He introduced me to Andrea and Howie, who had both taken him under their wing when he had first arrived in the US. From that point on, they were like family to us. Our Thanksgivings were spent in their home while we lived in New York, they threw an engagement party for us there, Andrea was Godmother to our son – and we all spent some time puzzling over what that meant.