On a sunny summer day in 2004, two employees of the New York State Museum took a scenic drive through the countryside. It was a perfect day for a field trip, but inside the car, an awkward tension hung between driver and passenger. "We were both thinking a lot of the same things," says Linda Hernick.
They were both thinking of Sharon Mannolini, Hernick's former coworker who had died the year before in a car accident while on vacation. Sharon was also sister to Frank Mannolini, who was now sitting next to Hernick on his first official day at the Museum, after volunteering there to continue his sister's work. "It was very different" from the last field trip with Sharon, Hernick says. "I was still very sad."
Formerly a carpenter and truck driver, Frank was a somewhat unlikely replacement for Sharon, who had been a geology student at the University ...
