Hire her now

By Kendall Matthews

I guess you could say she had me at hello. When Casey
interviewed at the Anderson Independent-Mail in '99, I
talked to her for all of five minutes before I said to
sports editor Randy Beard, "Hire her now."

Hard to believe that was almost five years ago. Harder
to believe she's gone now.

It's funny the things you remember. A long afternoon
sitting in McDonald's talking about baseball and life.
Walking through Circuit City looking at CDs and
talking about Bull Durham (greatet movie ever).

Stories from the road, countless funny stories about
her and CB and Smitty and the things they did. Casey
wearing a tiara to lunch and checking the mirror every
two minutes to watch it sparkle in the light.

Yeah, she touched my life in a lot of ways. I check on
Lou Merloni's stats in boxscores now, something I
never would've thought of doing on my own. I now know
that you can't learn from your mistakes if you don't
make mistakes; she taught me that.

I didn't get to work with Casey very long, but I tried
to read her stuff as often as I could. She had skills,
professionally speaking, but as a friend, she was 100
times more important. She brought me up when I was
down, and calmed me down when my life spun out of
control. I showed up at her door unannounced more
times than I probably should have, but she never
freaked out, and something good always came out of
those visits.

Casey stopped by The State in Columbia, S.C., where I
work now, for a visit. I was so proud to show her off
to everyone in the office, and she lit up the place,
like she always did. That was the last time I saw her.

I'm glad I got one last hug before she left.

Kendall worked with Casey at the Anderson Independent Mail.