Meredith Eliot died on SunMeredith Eliot died on Sunday, January 7th, from breast cancer. She faced her cancer diagnosis and death with what Graydon Carter, writing about Christopher Hitchens, termed a “saucy fearlessness.” She was 42 years old and wryly entertained by the idea that her age was ‘the answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything,’ to quote The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

Meredith is survived by her partner Pablo Kjolseth of Boulder, Colorado; her parents Ivy Church and Donald Davison of Grand Marais, Minnesota; her close friend and sibling Brendan (Wren) Eliot, of Boulder, Colorado, and her grandmother Marguerite Davison of International Falls, Minnesota. Her grandparents Gerald and Joanne Church and Donald H. Davison predeceased her. Meredith and Wren chose the last name Eliot after years of hyphenated names led them to pick a shorter option.

Meredith was born in Grand Marais, Minnesota, on March 9, 1981. The nearest malls and movie theaters were in Thunder Bay, Ontario, or Duluth, Minnesota, which meant that she spent her childhood either outdoors (including trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness) or inside, reading a lot of books and watching VHS tapes at home.

Meredith graduated from Princeton University in 2002. Meredith worked in administration at Princeton and later at the University of Colorado Boulder. She was the assistant to the Title IX Coordinator and office manager of the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance at CU Boulder when her breast cancer recurrence necessitated her disability retirement in 2017.

Meredith was an avid movie watcher, which led her to meeting her partner, Pablo. They had a spreadsheet to make sure not to forget any recommended viewing. She was also a voracious reader of a wide array of books, from detective mysteries to popular science.

Meredith took comfort in her belief that humans are capable of love and great kindness. If Meredith believed in karma, she would have stacked the deck in her favor by adopting older deaf or disabled dogs. She was preceded in death by many beloved dogs and cats. She leaves her and Pablo’s cats in his capable, cat-whisperer hands.