[M.D. Holloway]

We found out today that one of the women who does some phone work for our company was found dead in her pool yesterday by a co-worker. I knew her really good - great lady.

This is a woman that 10 years ago was bringing her 10 year old girl to work for "bring your kid to work day". She lost control of her car and got into an accident. Her child died on the spot.

Recently she bought a home and spent most of her time at night and weekends working on it. It has a pool but she didn't know how to swim. (Made me wonder why she wanted a house with a pool - maybe it just so happen to have a pool and the home fit her needs. Don't know.)

This woman was the type that lit up a room. She knew just what buttons to push to make you smile. Some folks didn't care for her thinking that she was way to over the top - I figured it was the meds that made her so happy all the time. She was a very strange looking woman but friendly as heck. I liked her. She always had a smile.

She lived alone – divorced with family in Houston and Louisiana. She was taking a few days off after the holiday but was supposed to be in on Thursday. She didn’t show or call. Her boss became concerned because in her 18 years of service she always called her boss to tell him she was gonna be out or sick or late. He sent two co-workers to her house and they found her face down in the pool. I talked to one of the guys today and he said that he called 911. He also told me it was his opinion that she was in the pool for awhile.

I asked him if he had ever seen a dead person before and he told me he saw some pretty harsh stuff in the Nam and her body floating (and bloated with flies and such) brought back some bad memories.

Not knowing what to say and feeling rather uncomfortable I said "Well, did ya poke her with a stick to make sure she was dead?" He laughed at that at least.

Tough times - Jennifer Maxwell will be missed.