Bassi recalled as wonderful, unique

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on June 05, 2009

Misty Bassi, the 33-year-old Amherst woman who was killed on Memorial Day during a collision with a car on University Drive, rode her bicycle everywhere and did not have a driver's license, according to Melissa Ferman, a longtime friend.

On Memorial Day at around 10:30 a.m., she was riding in the southbound lane of University Drive when a northbound car driven by Parvin Niroomand, 75, crossed the center line and struck her, police said.

Bassi was riding on University Drive and not on the bikepath east of the roadway. There was little traffic, and she believed that the bikepath was less safe because of all the driveways that intersect it, Ferman said.

Bassi was originally from Norwich, Conn., and attended the Academy of the Holy Family, an all-girls Catholic school, said Ferman, who was a classmate. Bassi was born in Germany to American parents and was adopted when she was 5; later she located her biological father and became close to him, Ferman said.

Bassi moved to Belchertown with Ferman in 1997. She worked at odd jobs, one of which involved commuting by bicycle to the late shift at an Easthampton factory, her friend recalled. She also worked at the McDonald's restaurant in Hadley. For 12 years, she had worked as a custodian at the University of Massachusetts.

"Misty was a quiet, reserved, brilliant and funny person who loved to read," Ferman said. "She loved Stephen King and sci-fi fantasy novels."

"She wasn't just a janitor or a worker at various odd jobs," she said. "She was someone who just wanted to figure out where her place was in this world and was willing to do whatever she had to do to get her there. You didn't have to understand her; you just had to accept and love her for the wonderful person she was."

Bassi recently got a degree from the University Without Walls program at UMass, Ferman said. She studied literature and illustration but had no plans to use these skills in a career, she said. She was affiliated with a pagan group on campus called SPIRALS and participated in solstice celebrations, Ferman said.

"She didn't know how to fit in or react around people," Ferman said of her friend. "She was comfortable being by herself or with people who knew her well. She was more comfortable with her cat and fish than with most people."

In March, Bassi adopted a cat named Moshi from the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society. Her supervisor from UMass has taken in Moshi, Ferman said.

Bassi sometimes referred to herself as "The Walking Computer Virus" because of her bad relationship with technology, Ferman said. She had some near-misses on her bicycle with cars and PVTA buses, she said.

"Misty would try to avoid cars as much as possible," her friend said.

When Ferman came to Amherst last weekend from her home in Georgia for Bassi's funeral, she went to the scene of the accident and found parts of the kickstand and gearshift from her friend's bicycle. She took them back home as remembrances.

"In a bizarre way, going to the scene was cathartic to me," she said. "Misty was cremated, so there won't be a grave to go to."

About 50 people attended Bassi's funeral on Sunday, including her adoptive parents, whom she hadn't seen in 12 years, and her biological father. The three parents met for the first time a few days before the funeral, she said.

"I'm glad I came," Ferman said. "I've gotten another family out of this."

Also at the funeral were friends from the job at UMass and the pagan group. Ferman reminisced at the funeral about their time together at the Catholic school.

"I said Misty would have been annoyed so many people were there on her account, but touched that so many turned out," she said.

Ferman said she is angry that she has lost her best friend and that the driver drove off after the collision, but at the same time, she feels empathy toward Niroomand.

"I don't have any hard feelings toward her," she said. "I had an elderly father, so I know that older people can have slower reaction times. If I had been in her shoes, I might have panicked. I can imagine how devastated she is, knowing she killed someone."