Remembering Mindy Lieberman ’81

Mindy Lieberman ’81 died of cancer March 26. A Washington attorney, she was the wife of Mark Goldstone ’81 and the mother of two children.

The Lafayette family remembers her as a classmate, a friend, and a founder of the Association of Lafayette Women. But one Washington-area family that she met entirely by chance remembers her simply as a kind and thoughtful person, as reflected in a letter to the Washington Post. Published April 19 under the headline “Kindness Was on Her Calendar,” it is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

There was a brief April 12 obituary with the simple headline “Mindy Lieberman, Lawyer.” It was about an area attorney, wife, and mother who died of cancer at 49. The obituary stated that her family “said she was proud of never having lost a case before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.”

I have another story about Mindy Lieberman.

I met Ms. Lieberman and her family just once. It was on an Amtrak train, around this time of year, in 2001. Our respective families were going to New Jersey and New York, and our young sons, both big fans of the New York Yankees, struck up a conversation about baseball. Mindy said that her family was going to Yankee Stadium during their visit to New York. My son, then 11, got so jealous. After all, it was Calendar Day at the stadium, and the Yankees were giving away wonderful calendars filled with photos of Yankee greats past and present. Mindy told him not to worry. She took our address and said she would mail a calendar to him. And that’s exactly what she did.

My son still has that calendar. I still have that memory. Eight years later, I still think of her kindness. And I want her family to know that she will always be remembered, even by someone who met her just once.

Ken Rudin