Friends of MariAnne McDonald gathered Monday to share memories and grieve on the one-year anniversary of her death.

McDonald fell to her death from a balcony on the third-floor of the house she was staying at while studying abroad in Florence on April 8, 2001. She was a junior illustration major at Syracuse University.

Students from the Pi Sigma Phi sorority held a candlelight vigil in the lobby of Hendricks Chapel on Monday after it was moved from the Quad in front of the chapel because of rain. Thirty students, who knew McDonald both at her time in Syracuse and Florence, heard a short sermon from the Rev. Thomas Wolfe before silently praying and then taking turns telling anecdotes about their friend.

Most of the stories centered around McDonald’s friendly and quirky nature that several people said characterized her.

“Every time she would talk to me or smile at me, it always made me want to be a better person because she was able to be that way normally,” said Cassy Coville, a senior policy studies and public relations major.

Clarice Marie Touwsma told a story about how McDonald refused to give away her social security number or fill out a census for fear that they were only tools the government would use to track her down. In one instance, the normally non-confrontational McDonald butted heads with her boss during a summer internship because she refused to write her social security number on her initial employment paperwork.

“She used to say ‘You can have any number you want, just not that one,’ ” said Touwsma, a senior English and textual studies major.

Andrew Berman said that he became good friends with McDonald when they began making “strange noises” to one another shorty after first meeting. But between the unusual greetings and games of indoor volleyball, it was these lessons about maturity that Berman said have stuck with him.

“You can be 19, 20 or 21 and still act like a kid,” said Berman, a senior music major. “That is one of the things that I learned from her.”

The event ended with a few closing words from Wolfe, who besides his opening statements, stayed silent for most of the vigil. He reminded everyone in attendance that even though the platform they had to tell stories about their friend had come to a close, they still have the rest of their life to remember McDonald through the fond memories that they will cherish forever.

“Even though you extinguish your flames now,” Wolfe said, “know that they will burn long after you leave this building.”

Published on April 8, 2002 at 12:00 pm