With Love to Miri Benezra

Dear Miri,
These words won't do justice to the soul you were and are, but I want to write somewhere and let you know that I will miss you. It's hard to imagine someone with so much love, spirit and life inside them leaving us and in such a senseless way.

I am so happy that I met you through work and became your friend. It never failed that if you were working with me, my day at Blick was bound to be a good one. (Hell, you even made inventory fun when you mistakenly called our rainbow folders the "Anne Frank" part of the store rather than the "Lisa Frank.") You were eccentric, creative, gorgeous, and so much more. When I first met you, I was intimidated by your good looks (you'd scoff at me right now, I know) and how cool and at ease you were with yourself and everyone around you. But you made me feel welcome and were sweet to me from the very beginning. There are few people in the world that encompass the qualities you did. You were filled with light, and everyone could see it. I'm so glad that you shared that light with me, and despite your passing, I don't believe that light will be extinguished. I'll miss you, Miri.

With all my love,
Caitlin

2 cars fatally strike pedestrian near Loyola

THE BLOTTER

10:14 AM CDT, April 10, 2008

A 21-year-old woman was killed when struck by two cars Wednesday night outside Loyola University's Lake Shore Campus on Chicago's North Side.

Shortly before 9 p.m., a Mercedes vehicle was heading south in the 6500 block of North Sheridan Road when it hit the woman, forcing her into northbound traffic, police said. She was then hit by a Nissan sport-utility vehicle.

Miriam Benezra of the 9400 block of Kedvale Avenue in Skokie was pronounced dead at 3:54 a.m. Thursday in St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, according to a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office.

The driver of the Mercedes, a 55-year-old Chicago man, and the Nissan's driver, a 29-year-old from Chicago, each were ticketed for failing to exercise due care to a pedestrian in a roadway.

Benezra, a photography student at Oakton Community College in Skokie and a graduate of Niles North High School, had just parked her car near Loyola and was trying to cross the street to board a CTA train to downtown when she was struck, said Ann Miller, who has known Benezra for years.

Benezra was known for her outgoing personality and wonderful sense of humor and had many friends at Loyola and Oakton. She was planning on continuing her studies at Columbia College in Chicago.

"She was very creative, very full of life," Miller said. In addition to attending classes, Benezra worked at Blick, an art supplies store in Evanston, Miller said. Her parents own the North Shore Kosher Bakery in West Rogers Park.

Friends leaving messages on Benezra's Facebook.com profile Thursday morning expressed disbelief about the accident.

"I love you. i was thinking about you yesterday," wrote one poster. "i'll never forget you or your beautiful outlook on life."