Friends remember Tricia Zailo as someone who was always encouraging them; always having fun.

Her caring attitude came through with every note the communication junior left her roommate in their Bogue Street apartment. Maureen Halstead has been finding those messages ever since her “East Coast buddy” died Dec. 18.

“She was the most immature/mature girl I knew,” Halstead, a communication junior, said. “She had so much fun but knew when it came to school when to buckle down.”

Zailo died during winter break in New Jersey because of what officials believe was toxic shock syndrome, a severe and sudden disease caused by a Staphylococcus aureus bacterial infection.

Friends are working to organize a memorial service on campus.

“This summer I let her move in with me in a house,” Halstead said. “We would just go to the park and sit and talk and did little best friend things.

“I’m just happy I met a person like that.”

Zailo also had contracted a meningitis bacteria infection in an ear, but officials do not believe that bacteria played a role in her death.

Halstead said Zailo seemed healthy when she left her on the last day of finals week. The meningitis bacteria had given Zailo an earache, but Halstead said she was coping well with it.

Zailo had even taken Halstead to the hospital a week earlier, telling her jokes and refusing to go home until she knew her roommate was OK.

“At 3:30 in the morning she was trying to talk Chinese to me because I was crying and just wanted to leave,” Halstead said.

Journalism sophomore Nicole Schmitt drove home to Harper Woods, Mich., with Zailo after finals. Zailo then traveled back home to Fairfield, N.J., where she spent much of the weekend shopping.

By that Monday, Zailo was hospitalized and died.

“I’m glad I was able to say goodbye Friday and talked to her over the weekend,” said Schmitt, who became best friends with Zailo after they lived across the hall from each other in South Wonders Hall last year.

“We wanted to do something big. We wanted to start a production company or something and take over the world. She was just amazing.”

Zailo was a member of the field hockey team during her freshman year. She recently changed her major to communication from accounting.

Halstead and Schmitt, learning from their loss, encourage friends to treasure the time they have together.

“I want to sit here and want to cry every day about it, but it’s one of those situations I can do nothing about,” Halstead said. “You never know how long someone’s going to be around.

“I wish I had just one more day to say thank you. I know she’ll look down on everyone and try to help everyone out.”

Schmitt said she was still searching for the reason why Zailo died.

“She was so much fun,” she said. “We had so much fun with her no matter what she did.

“She was angelic. You can’t get any better than her.”

Jeremy W. Steele can be reached at steelej7@msu.edu.