There are so many stories I’d like to share about Lauren Giddings. She is one of my best friends and I could not have survived law school without her.
The first night I met Lauren, a group of brand new law students sat inside her tiny apartment across from the law school. We didn’t know each other at all and at the time we had no idea that we all would become an inseparable group. We had no idea that despite distance, we’d remain a close knit family in the future. I remember that night, we went out to an upperclassmen’s party and eventually ended up downtown at various watering holes. Lauren was decked out in pink, clearly her favorite color, and I thought that I was meeting Elle from Legally Blonde. Lauren even had her tiny lapdog Butterbean greeting us at her apartment. Lauren told me that Butterbean was named after the country song by Kevin Fowler. Lauren had bought Butterbean while living in Lubbock, Texas. Butterbean soon became our family as much as Lauren did; he attended every intramural game, even every get together, and was a prominent fixture on Lauren’s lap.
I soon learned that Lauren would become one of those law school friends that older attorneys had told me about. The advice I had received from attorneys before going to law school was the same: Don’t go to law school, but if you do, know that you’ll leave there with friendships that will last a lifetime. I had no idea what that advice had meant at the time, but reflecting back, I now know exactly what they were talking about. Law school was hard, but the friends that you gain in this journey are precious. Lauren was one of those precious friends, someone who would be there for you no matter what, and made our group of friends a family. Although Lauren has left us early, I can honestly say that she is the friend that is binding us together, the glue that made us a family and that will keep us a family forever.
With Lauren being from Maryland and me from New York, we instantly formed a bond, the Yankees, attending law school in the South. She had lived here much longer than I had, but she took it upon herself to show me what the South was about. Lauren had planned a group trip to the Georgia National Fair, where I watched my first pig race and saw all the dairy cows on display. She also took me to my first Braves baseball game, the first major league game I’d ever been to. She made sure that I experienced Atlanta as well, showing me around town and brought a good time wherever we went.
Lauren loved country and bluegrass music. She’d always be planning which shows we would catch at the Hummingbird, the Capital Theatre, or even Whiskey River; she was always in the know as to which acts were going to be in town and would try to get the whole group to attend. She told me once that she had not changed her radio station in months, and I believed her because every time I rode in her car it was tuned to the country station.
As a Hash House Harrier, Lauren took me to one of the hashes. A group of us went to celebrate Lauren’s birthday. I believe that it was what the Harrier’s call the Founder’s Day Hash. Midway through the “hash”, Lauren had ditched me and I was running through the woods with a bunch of strangers who I became fast friends with, as they were my lifeline to getting to the finish. Without them, I’d have been lost. Another time, Lauren and I went on a hike in Juliette, and we took my dog Timber with us. Lauren had the purpose of scoping out a trail in advance, as it was her duty to lay the trail on the next hash. We’d hiked for 3 hours trying to figure out this trail, it was overgrown, misleading and we received many bug bites. We laughed the entire time and eventually found our way out.
We would spend countless hours laying by the pool, talking about life, what we had hoped would happen for us in the future and about our jobs. Lauren worked in the Public Defender’s office and I was a law clerk in the District Attorney’s office. The other law clerks would pick on us good naturedly when we would attend court and sit next to each other, as one of us would always have to be on the opposite side of where we were supposed to sit. We’d always show up for the other in court when there was a case that’d we’d worked particularly hard on, just to sit and watch the other in action in front of the Judge. It was exciting and it was wonderful to have my best friend in court with me, even if we were on the opposing sides of the case. She always gave me so much courage as I faced the Judge and I admired how she never faltered up there. She always represented her clients zealously. She’d spend hours at a time inside the jail conducting interviews with her clients and always would make sure that she’d try to finish every interview that she’d scheduled before leaving for the day. Lauren was proving to be a wonderful attorney.
Always one willing to plan a party, Lauren had set to the task to make sure that we would have a fun graduation party the night before graduation in May. Lauren planned the whole thing. She contacted the Fish’n’Pig months before graduation to reserve the room, planned the meal, and kept a count on how many of our family members would be attending. Without her, I don’t think any of us could have planned such a great evening. It was a perfect way to spend graduation with friends and family right before one of the most important days of our lives. Definitely a party that I will never forget.
I can never say how much Lauren means to me, as words cannot do her memory justice. She made all of us better people. Anyone who knew Lauren will know that I mean. She’s touched my life in so many ways and has made me a better person. I will miss her always, but I know that she’ll be looking down on me from heaven.
In loving memory of Lauren Teresa Giddings
April 18, 1984 - June 26, 2011
