Friends remember student’s kindness

By Vanessa Renderman
Special Projects Editor

Shyam Sriram has had the name "Kristine" tattooed on his upper arm for six months. Last Tuesday, he got another tattoo: "In Loving Memory of Kristine."

The "Kristine" is Kristine Noonan, a 21-year-old senior in the School of Management who died March 30. She was one of Sriram's good friends.

"She was the first person there for me when my sister died ... Kristine was the most supportive person in my life for the last six months," said Sriram, a senior in the School of Liberal Arts.

Noonan dared Sriram to get her name tattooed on him because he already had more than 20 tattoos, and she didn't think he would do it. But, as Sriram wrote in a letter to Noonan's mother, the tattoo will be with him forever.

"Don't be shocked by the picture I sent you of the Kristine tattoo," he said in the letter. "Rest assured, though, that there's at least one person at Purdue who loved Kristine so much and cared for her so much that he wanted her name near his heart for the rest of his life."

Sriram said everyone who met Noonan liked her. She helped anyone who needed help. "She was a really selfless person," he said.

Noonan, a member of Delta Zeta Sorority and director of finance last year for the Panhellenic Association, was a person who could put anyone in a good mood, said one friend.

"She does these different voices and can put a smile on your face," said Laura Moon, a junior in the School of Liberal Arts and president of Delta Zeta.

Noonan did impressions from the movie "Austin Powers" and sometimes said "and such" in a higher intonation at the end of her sentences. Moon said that other women in the house find themselves saying "and such" at the end of their sentences in the same pitch Noonan used.

Moon admired how well Noonan and Noonan's brother got along. "I can only hope that if I have a boy and girl that they would be like Kristine and her brother," she said. "They were extremely close. I have never known a set of siblings that were as close as they were."

Moon said everyone knew Noonan, even the sorority's new members. The women in the house called her "Noonan" instead of "Kristine."

Noonan, who was house treasurer for a year, was Moon's pledge mom, so the two lived together for a semester. Moon remembers walking into their room and hearing Noonan listening to her Will Smith CD. Noonan would listen to the Backstreet Boys and Dixie Chicks too. "She listened to pretty much everything," Moon said.

Sriram said that he can't listen to Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You" and "Angel" without feeling sad because those were songs played at Noonan's funeral.

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