Tone Karlsen (1978-2007)

This year had a very bad start. On Sunday the 7th, Tone Karlsen lost her life in a car accident in South Africa. She was there on holiday with her live-in boyfriend, Christopher Dons. Dons survived the accident with mild injuries. Tone only lived to be 28 years old.

I studied with Tone at BI The Norwegian School of Management where she specialised in Organisational psychology and management. Tone was a very bright student, but even more importantly, she was a joy to be around with her warm smile and good sense of humour (bizarre to think of now, but I was a little jealous of her beautiful hair and smiling eyes...). I always thought it was a shame that we did not take any more classes together, as I'd have liked to get to know her better.

Unfortunately, you always think you'll get that chance again some time later - at an alumni gathering or just meeting up in Oslo with other friends from uni. This time there was no second chance. For me this is a reminder that we have to take care of friends and family when they're around, and not put it off because of a busy schedule.

To Tone's family and boyfriend: Please accept my most sincere condolences on this horrible loss.

Hvil i fred Tone. Vi kommer til å savne deg.

For lack of better words - here's a poem by Robert Frost that expresses what I would have liked to be able to say if I could.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost (1875-1963)