Cindy was Linux Medical News ace reporter for four years before she passed on. Despite some quirks, such as thinking everyone was a Chihuahua, she had a true talent for getting the inside track for important meetings and being around powerful people in the Free and Open Source Software in medicine scene. She has received much fan-mail over the years and a recent, temporary, omission of the link to her page was noted by many. Cindy has been missed since her departure to that great reporters heaven in the sky. However, this past week, while perusing an O’Reilly PHP and MySQL book, the staff of Linux Medical News received a cryptic message posted to the site…

“Ich habe sie gefunden!” A quick trip to Babelfish revealed the message in German: “I have found you!” Then, a few days later there was a mysterious knock low on the door of Linux Medical News World Headquarters (located somewhere near NASA’s mission control).

Ace LMN Reporter Shirley

We opened the door to find a nice German girl sitting on our doorstep. She introduced herself as Shirley. Lo and behold Shirley is Cindy’s long-lost German cousin. Shirley is said to be no slouch of a reporter as well, having been taught by her famous south of the border relative. It turns out that Shirley had just finished a stint as a speechwriter for Dr. David Brailer and was looking for work.

Linux Medical News wasted no time in hiring her as a staff reporter. We welcomed her with a bath, a new house and some treats. We knew that Shirley was the real thing when she looked at the staff of Linux Medical News and said: ‘Lots of Dachsunds here, aren’t there?’ then made herself comfortable on the sofa. We welcome Shirley to the staff of Linux Medical News and expect her experience in the ONCHIT office to provide a unique insight to FOSS in medicine.