A reader who had seen a reference in my column to families surviving home-remodeling passed along a story culminating in the birth of his daughter in 2003.

I won't rehash the whole thing, but it was unusual enough that the S-R wrote about it.

And here's the thing. The guy telling me all this said he was pretty sure Virginia DeLeon was the reporter who wrote the story, and Virginia is now a teacher at that kid's school. Neat, huh?

I always liked Virginia. I saw her for the first time in years at Riverfront Park about six weeks ago. But I was actually working on a story at that very moment and I am sure I seemed distant and distracted. I suspect it was no big deal to Virginia, but it bothered me when I thought about it later.

But here, dumped in my lap, was a column item in which I could mention my old colleague and perhaps praise her in passing.

So I looked up that story on the 2003 birth. And it was written by Carla K. Johnson.

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