I am still completely numb that Kome is not with us anymore. I met Kome when I first started at Oxford long before she became a top researcher in our Infections Research Group. When I think of her, I always will have fond memories: quiet, mostly reserved, tenacious, and if I can say, sometimes a little naive.
One of my fondest recollections will be our time in Chicago at the the NAPRCG conference in 2018. It was November and bitterly cold as Chicago can be that time of year. I was travelling with my partner, and Kome met us after the conference day. We were planning to go our friends downtown, and Kome (still jet-lagged) wanted to go to her hotel room. She said she’s walk back to her hotel but had no idea as to the direction, and was prepared to take the ‘short-cut’ under a pitch black flyover…
Alarm bells were ringing. So we kindly invited her to our friends where we savored the local cuisine: deep dish pizza followed by traditional s’mores under a perfect speckled sky. It wasn’t long before we noticed that someone wasn’t participating in the conversations anymore. She had fallen asleep in the arms of a total stranger (our gracious host)!
Kome, you will be sorely missed.
I only have good memories of you. And in those precious memories, Kome, you will live on because it is those memories that will bring us comfort and remind us that she will always be with us.