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Good Cook and Loyal Friend

There was a certain stability to Sherry Ann Bordeaux: she joined Fiduciary Trust after college and stayed there for 15 years. She got to be best friends with Nicole Lynch way back in junior high school, and stayed best friends ever since.

And she loved her cozy living arrangement in a three-family home in New Jersey, where Ms. Bordeaux, 38, lived upstairs, her mother and brother lived downstairs and her sister's family lived in the basement. "She was close with my kids," said Ms. Bordeaux's sister, Cynthia. "She'd take them out to eat. They'd listen to music together, mostly R & B, and they danced a lot."

At Thanksgiving, while Ms. Bordeaux's mother would serve the meal, Ms. Bordeaux, an aspiring cook, would have the family — which often included Ms. Lynch — up for appetizers or dessert.

"She loved cooking and she liked to think she was the female Emeril," Ms. Lynch said. "Whenever we would travel together, she would find the good restaurants. Her wine was always merlot. She was a typical Virgo, very straight and clear and a little rigid. She always knew what she liked."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 3, 2001.