It was icy and slushy as I drove to work to day. And all I could think about was her.
She was my first college girlfriend. We dated for a year. She wasn't the best looking girl at the party, but she was fun. She was awkward, but she had an idea of who she was. She was always frustrated that I was smarter than her, but she always encouraged me. She was at home going to a basketball game or going out to dinner. After we broke up, we lost touch even though we only lived about 500 yards from each other. She wanted to sow her oats before she settled down, and I was possessive. Eventually, she dropped out of school and moved west. That was the last I heard from her until 2011.
On a whim, I decided to look her up. The internet facilitates things like that. I couldn't believe what I was reading. An obituary? No picture, but it matched her. Apparently she had moved to Colorado. She had a son with a guy, but they weren't married. On her way to work one icy day, she went off the road. Her car plunged into a lake, and she drowned in subzero temperatures. She was 26 years old.
That isn't how I remember her. I remember her when she came to visit me in the summer after our freshman year. She lived about an hour away, and I was without a car, so it was incumbent on her to come and visit me. I was living with my dad and I took the day off from work (the beauty of hourly jobs). She showed up in a short floral dress, with spaghetti straps and her reddish hair. We just had a little picnic with some music. I don't even remember what the music was, I just remember her sing song voice, her subtle laugh, and the way her eyes lit up when she smiled. It has been just about 20 years, and of all my memories of her, that is the one that endures.
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