Train derailment victim is remembered as a great friend and student

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - It's not often that you feel the life of a friend, but Rachael Green was that close to Rose Mayr for about a year.

"I had to like feel her pulses, and I had to like listen to her heartbeat.  And I just keep, that's just like the most powerful thing to me.  Just her heartbeat, the life I listened to with a stethoscope," said Green.      

Green was in the nursing program with Mayr at the University of Delaware.  They were lab partners, both set to start their junior year.  Quite frankly, talking about studying was cool at a summer party.

"I was like Rose I'm so sorry, I'm such a nerd.  Sorry for talking to you about class.  And she was like Rachael I'm such a nerd too, I love talking about that stuff.  Like it's totally cool, I love talking about that," said Green.   

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Friends are remembering Mayr's personality - her laugh, her smile, her dancing, and her ability to make anyone feel included.

"You meet her and you felt like you knew her.  That's how she was,” Green said.     

From her parents' home in Havre de Grace, Green is trying to understand how quickly a friend was taken away.  Aside from the details from her Twitter account of her drinking and being close to the tracks, Green says Mayr was not irresponsible.

One night of living on the edge just happened to be her last.

"They were just living life a little bit on the edge.  And some people can do that five billion times and they live to be 80 and they live to tell all the times they lived on the edge.  Some people do it once in their life and they can't live to tell their tale," said Green.    

The nursing program at the University of Delaware is small, only about 150 students.  Rachael Green says they will likely plan a memorial for Mayr once students get back to school next week.