Metro Atlanta woman had sweet friendship with Ginsburg starting as a child

ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman is sharing her story about the special relationship she had with the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ginsburg died Friday at 87 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Channel 2′s Audrey Washington talked to Naomi Shavin, who first met Ginsburg when she was a child. She was still grappling with the justice’s death Saturday.

“I think so many of us had been worried about Justice Ginsburg this year,” Shavin said. “It was surreal. It was something that we had talked about as something that could happen this year, that we were afraid of because we had admired her so much.”

Shavin is the daughter of a former Channel 2 Action News Producer. On Saturday, Shavin told Washington about a letter she sent to Ginsburg as a child and how the Justice actually took the time to respond.

In the whimsical letter, a 5-year-old Shavin tells Ginsburg her grandmother is also named Ruth and compares her to King Solomon.

“Are you in charge of all the people in the United States?” Shavin wrote in a childish scrawl. “Have you ever made a mistake?”

It was the beginning of a years long friendship that was even featured on Good Morning America.

“I got to meet her at one of her speaking engagements in Atlanta, and then I got meet her in her chambers in Washington D.C. at the Supreme Court with my family,” Shavin said.

Shavin said Ginsburg went out of her way to make her feel like the two were alike.

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“When you get to meet one of your heroes, you’re so desperate to show them that you’re like them,” Shavin said. “And she went out of her way to make me feel like she was more like me.”

This weekend, Shavin plans to visit the makeshift memorial for Ginsburg in D.C. She said it’s important to pay her respects and honor the life of her very dear friend.

“I think that a lot of people felt this closeness to her, felt like she had their best interest at heart, and were fighting for them,” Shavin said. “She was personable, she was relatable, she was funny. I think so many people felt close to her and that told them that she was a real person that they could relate to, that they could imagine incredible things for themselves.”

Ginsburg served 27 years on the nation’s highest court. Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

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Cox Media Group