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Today's most e-mailed
Prior days' news: By date | Search This week's print issue Back issues: By date | Search April 17, 2007Caitlin HammarenA few months ago, Caitlin Hammaren, 19, stopped by Minisink Valley Central School, in Slate Hill, N.Y., to listen to the school’s chamber choir. The tall, slim brunette slipped in and out of the performance, leaving only the shadow of her characteristically bubbly personality. “If I hadn’t seen her back there, I wouldn’t even have known she was there,” says Victor Izzo III, the school’s choral director, who had relied on her contribution to the chamber choir and mixed chorus. If she had stopped to chat, Ms. Hammaren might have talked with Mr. Izzo, her mentor and former choral director, about her decision to major in international studies and French, a plan to raise money with her sorority sisters in Kappa Kappa Gamma this spring to fight cancer, or the challenges of serving as a resident assistant to mostly first-year students in Peddrew-Yates Hall at Virginia Tech, where she was a sophomore.  Facebook.com “She liked spirituals, she liked the upbeat stuff, but she always found the spirit in any song,” Mr. Izzo says. Her alto voice “was exactly what I needed when I needed it, no matter when it was.” She never sought to stand out, he says, but she led by example, even in the most awkward circumstances. When Ms. Hammaren was a sophomore in high school, Mr. Izzo recalls, “we were at our state competition and she got a bloody nose. And she completed the song even though her nose was bloody. She went and stuffed tissues up her nose and finished the performance,” he says. “She didn’t even miss a note.” Even though he hasn’t seen her since she graduated, in 2005, John P. Latini, Minisink’s principal, remembers her clearly. She was always smiling, he says, and quick to greet him in passing: “How are you doing, Mr. Latini?” She “just always carried herself very well; she was a mature student,” he says. At 17, Ms. Hammaren joined a group of high-school juniors at the State University of New York at Brockport for a weeklong exercise in governance with Girls State, a leadership program organized by the American Legion. “She always seemed a cut above, and kids admired her, as did staff,” Mr. Latini says. —Sierra Millman Posted on Tuesday April 17, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
Previous: Christopher James Bishop
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Caitlin was my cousin, and nothing can ever replace her for as long as I live. She was perfect, and my role model for life. She was a amazing sudent that I’ll never be able to be, she was a good friend who was always there for you with a smile on her face, a musician as talented as a professional. She was everything. A daughter, a friend, a student, and a cousin. Its hard to think that shes gone forever, but i have no doubt in my mind that we will meet once again, one day, in paradise.
— Nick Margherita Apr 19, 07:13 PM #
I knew Caitlin for short time and she made a huge impact on me. She was the nicest person I have ever met. I thank her parents and her family for raising such a wonderful young woman. Caitlin truly was an angel and there was no excuse for this tragedy. I send my deepest condolences to her family and friends . I am positive that she is smiling that amazing smile in heaven right now. We will all miss her so much.
— Chris Apr 20, 05:12 PM #
Caitlin has been a best friend to me. We were the two Minisink girls at Virginia Tech- in the same building, just two floors away. Without Caitlin I would not have returned to Tech after I became so sick during move in. She moved everything in and out for me, she did everything for me. She was the voice I heard in my ear at chamber choir everyday, my best friend, and now she is my angel.
— Kristen Wickham Apr 21, 12:30 PM #