Dead woman’s friends remember the real person behind the headlines

FOR those multitudes who never knew her, it was easy to forget that Terri Schiavo was a real woman who led a real life. But for her friends and family, it was impossible to forget.

Debbie Meyer, for instance, remembers the time more than 20 years ago when an excited Terri Schindler called her at college. She had a date - the first date this once overweight girl had ever had.

The boy was tall and handsome and he had kissed her. The boy was Michael Schiavo. She had met him at a sociology class at Bucks County Community College, and they married a little more than a year later.