Today is a holy day, the 27th anniversary of the almost big one, the Loma Prieta quake of 1989. Had the San Francisco Giants not been playing the Oakland A’s at Candlestick Park, an untold more than 42 people would have died driving through on the Cypress Structure, a 1.6 mile double decker length of pavement, four lanes on top and four on the bottom, held up by concrete pillars which seemed to domino on that day.
This special report from the New York Times is worth the read and goes into detail.
But this is old school – and I cried old school as I typed out this tribute, to Melissa E. Maxwell, my friend and fellow cafeteria coworker who moved on twenty-five years ago, one of forty-two souls who died on the Cypress Structure.
Click here to get to the pdf, typed on my IBM Selectric II back in 2014 or see below. Remember Loma Prieta.
Update: In upgrading this page as I often do, I found this report from 2019 on ABC news in a report on the thirty year anniversary of Loma Prieta. It’s a great video story which illustrates once again how many people she still touches today. Click on the link below to get to the ABC News Report.
https://abc30.com/jim-kinnison-melissa-maxwell-loma-prieta-earthquake-30-years/5627669/
I remember Melissa. She came in to the medical records department regularly at Highland Hospital, where I worked, to drop off subpoenas. I was no longer at the hospital on that day, but I was at ALCO EMS in Oakland! When I learned she was a victim I was very saddened.
Nice, Pierre. I too remember Mel, she was good people, and I was saddened to learn of her passing. Thanks for the thoughtful memories.
She was a very special person. I will never forget her.
I was so happy to see this today. Thank you. I am Melissa’s youngest sister and 4th of 5. To attend UCSD.
I’m glad finding this made you happy. She was amazingly awesome in pretty much every way.
Big Red was my sister, older by a year. My younger sister found this – I don’t know when but just passed it on this year, 2019.. You described her well. Thanks for the memory. :-(.
Big Red was my younger sister. I was the eldest of nine. My sister shared this with all of us today, 30 years after her loss. So nice to see something like this after all these years.
For me, I knew Mel for a bit back in the late ’70s. Mel and her friend Amy recruited me out of the dishroom in the Muir cafeteria to play ball hockey. They played defense and were rock solid. I was fresh out of boarding school in Canada so I played in net without a mask, because, who needed masks. I was Canadian and rolled my own cigarettes. We won the “Cup” which was a big deal at UCSD since they really prided themselves on the Intramural program vs. having intercollegiate teams. I’m pretty sure Mel played rugby with Amy. All great memories. It makes me proud to have given the Maxwells a smile today.