For 26 years, Thelma Shriber was one of the most reliable employees ever to have worked at the Cook/Douglass Co-op Bookstore. As a cashier, her register always checked out with the daily total.
During the book rush last September, she fell ill but was reluctant to ask for any time off. It was around the anniversary of her husband's death, and she told her colleagues the busy store kept her mind off of it.
Eventually, the Co-op's staff convinced her to see a doctor - suspecting that her blood pressure medication was having adverse side effects. They were wrong.
"She left sick that day, and we never saw her again," said Dion Giannicola, a store employee. "We didn't even get a chance to hug her."
Shriber died of pancreatic cancer on February 29 at 12:30 a.m., just two weeks shy of her 79th birthday.
Her co-workers at the store said they are still trying to come to terms with the loss. Most of them had worked with her for decades.
Cindy Rivers, the manager, said much had changed at the store over the years, but Shriber was always there.
"I look at her picture, and it's like, 'No, it can't be, it just can't be,'" she said. "We're like family. That's why it hurts so much to lose somebody because we're all so close."
She said Shriber had lived an exciting and eclectic life - traveling around the world and meeting many movie stars through her husband's job at McCall's, an entertainment magazine.
Paris was her favorite destination in Europe. In college, she studied theatre and wanted to act. She met Paul Newman and waited on Calista Flockhart when the Ally McBeal star was a Mason Gross School of the Arts student. But mainly, she was a mom and a grandmother.
"Thelma lived for her children and her grandchildren," said Rivers. "[Her fourth grandson] was just born. She just got to see him."
In the '80s, Shriber, who was a Rhode Island native, moved from Manhattan to Middlesex County with her husband Hal to raise their two children. She met some Co-op employees at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple on Livingston Street and wound up coming in for a job, said Rivers.
Both of her sons attended Lehigh University, but whenever they dropped off Shriber's grandchildren at the Co-op for a visit, the youngsters would pick out a new Rutgers sweatshirt to take home with them.
Her family was not the only group that visited her at the Nichol Avenue book and convenience store. Because she traveled so extensively, University students often sought her advice before embarking on a semester abroad, said Giannicola.
Still, Giannicola's husband Vinny, who also worked at the Co-op, said there was far more to Shriber than her worldliness.
"She was just a great person," he said. "She'll be missed."
He said she was fond of the CBS drama Jericho, which had been cancelled last year but returned in February after fans flooded the network with requests to revive the series.
"I watched it last night and thought of her," he said, referring to Tuesday's episode. "I wish that she was around to watch it, you know?"
Giannicola also reflected on Shriber's magnanimous nature - saying she was considerate of others even as her own health deteriorated.
"She was a very caring person. If [I was] sick…she would call me at home to see if I was alright," she said. "She cared about the people she worked with, she really did."
Shriber had just moved into a new home in Somerset when she was suddenly taken ill in September. Giannicola said she probably had no idea how sick she was until a CAT scan led to a terminal prognosis.
Debra Hinlicky, an employee at the store, said the day Shriber received her diagnosis was the first time she did not bother coming back to work. Before then, Hinlicky had been trying to convince her that nothing was seriously wrong.
"You always want to believe that," she said.
Shriber left many plans unfinished including an autumn trip to Israel she had finally gathered the nerve to go on with her congregation.
"Last time they went, she was too afraid, so she decided 'I'm just gonna go,'" Rivers said. "She didn't get to do that, [but] I guess she can go there now ... "
