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Florence G. Cohen: A Guide Through the Maze

 

The offices of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance on the 86th floor of 2 World Trade Center could be a baffling wonderland, with all the various kinds of tax returns processed and audited there. But luckily there was Florence G. Cohen, a longtime clerical worker in the sales tax department, to show the way.

"She was very helpful with people," said a colleague, Geraldine Howard-Outlaw. "She knew not only the sales tax, but all the other departments she had worked in."

Her daughter Joyce said: "She was extremely generous. She would give people the shirt off her back."

Ms. Cohen, 62, loved to go to the theater. "She had wanted to see `The Producers,' but she didn't get a chance," her daughter said. And Ms. Cohen, who was a widow, loved to travel, because "she liked to have fun and visit places and see different things," Mrs. Howard-Outlaw said. One of her favorite destinations was Las Vegas, not for the gambling, her colleague said, "but for the scenery and the atmosphere." She had even thought about moving there permanently, once her work with taxes was done.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times