They planted a tree in honor of Clara Mae Williams Monday. And they watered it with their tears.

Williams was a public health social worker at the Dallas County Health Department. She died May 15 in an automobile accident.

Monday, co-workers gathered to pay tribute to the woman one called &uot;the glue that held us together.&uot;

In a profession that too often overwhelms its practitioners with impossible caseloads and ingratitude, Williams stood out. She could cajole reluctant patients into following a prescribed course of treatment and always seemed to know just the right words to cheer a colleague who was feeling the strain.

Williams began working at the health department in 1991. Utsey followed six months later. They were fast friends from the start.

Then, suddenly serious, &uot;She was my best friend in the whole world.&uot;

On the day that Williams died, it was Utsey who first had a premonition that something might be wrong.

While retracing Williams’ usual route to work, Utsey got the call that her friend had been involved in an accident. Withing minutes she had come upon the actual scene of the accident.

Utsey dismisses the memory of that day by saying simply, &uot;It was rough.&uot;

There were more tears Monday, but they were tears of celebration for a life well lived. Her friends and co-workers planted a red maple so that Clara Mae Williams’ memory will live on. They hung one plaque on the wall of the Dallas County Health Department and gave another to Williams’ family. Then they did what Williams would have wanted them to do. They got back to the business of living.

Only, somehow it won’t be the same. Explained Utsey, &uot;There’s a void in our lives now.&uot;