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A personal note to my friend, Alyce Cresap

A dear friend—one I've never met face to face but have grown to love and trust—will be leaving us soon, as she is in the final stages of an incurable disease. I do not want to wait and do an obituary for Alyce—I want to tell her how I feel about her now, while she is still able to read my words.

I first met Alyce when we were both involved in starting IOBA. But I really started to get to know her when we both were new board members at Book CoOp. Our friendship has grown through emails and the occasional phone call over all the years since to the point where she is one of the few completely trusted and most loved best-friends that I have.

Alyce is my hero. She has fought overwhelming odds health-wise to remain a good and active bookseller, and she has given unselfishly and very generously of her time— to her family where she has served as historian and put out a newsletter , to IOBA where she is on her second term as a hard-working board member, to Book CoOp in its formative period, to the IOBA newsletter where she has contributed many articles and much good advice to its editor, and to the bookseller community at large, where she's never too busy to answer newbies or book buyer questions on email lists, and where she also brings us back down to earth occasionally with her droll wit and clear thinking. She also always makes time to listen to and help with personal problems.

Alyce has truly given her all for books; she has been on oxygen for several years thanks to a water leak near her book storage area and the mold that got into her lungs from it. It never stopped her, though. She has found ways to continue selling and cataloging books, promoting ethics and education for booksellers, and leading an active and full life as a mother to twin sons, a friend to many, and a caretaker for various dogs in her life.

All I can finally say is that our world will be much poorer when Alyce is not with us.

I will miss you, Alyce.

Shirley Bryant

P.S. Alyce died on May 8^th, in the company of her son, Jeff. The above note to her and that from Julie Fauble were sent to her son to read to her, earlier. We have a great hole in our midst.