I found her at the biker chat room. I just got my bike then, first one in the USA. The excitement was overflowing in pursuit of fellow bikers both on and off-line. She was 33, from Wichita, Kansas and a mom of a beautiful 5-yr old girl. Recently separated from husband and a newbie on a honda magna 250.
We used to chat every now and then, talking about many things from bikes to the American way of life. Learnt a lot about the latter. Till she met a guy and moved in with him. She was no longer online but in the meantime I was introduced to her younger sister and used to chat with her sometimes.
I used to get her news once a while through her sister. They were a happy couple as far as I could understand. Till the shocking news came by. The couple got into an argument and the guy shot her in the stomach. The shock was hard enough. She survived through a couple surgeries and a few days in coma but the end came before long. A tragedy, true. Even worse to have lost a biker soul.
Reminded me a similar incident that had me dumbfounded. Met a guy online who owned the same bike as mine. He was a young police officer, around my age. After the first few minutes of bike-talk he had to go on a duty call and told me to wait an hour to resume the chat. An hour and half later, his mom came online and told me he was shot dead while handling a bank robbery case. I had nothing to say to comfort her. It was just too much to handle.
Such is life. Tragedies happen just in front of us. But life goes on.