Anna

My good friend in High School, Anna Chrouch, passed away this week. I hadn't spoken to Anna since graduation. Some stupid fight, I don't even remember... but we never recovered, then went our separate ways. I don't know the cause of death, and am so saddened by the loss of a life- so young, a friend who was so dear to me in school.

I used to drive Anna to early drill team practice every day before school. Most of my memories of our times together were laughing and singing in the car. We had the exact same taste in music. There are two songs that will always remind me of Anna, forever and always. "Losing My Religion" by REM and "Lightening Crashes" by Live. We had these silly interpretive movements that we "danced" while singing in the car. I still do these movements in my head whenever I hear these songs.

Addison went with me to the funeral this morning. I tried to get her to wear a dress "like Mommy" but quickly discovered that if I wanted a happy, reasonable daughter during the service, she would need to wear one of her tutus. So, she wore a tutu to the funeral. Go figure. I told her before hand that we would have to be very quiet, and that we would probably see some very sad people, people crying. She did really well. About half way through the service, it dawned on me that she attends Chapel at school every week, so she is used to sitting quietly in a church. Her teachers call it "God's house". So I reminded her that we were in God's house, and that helped keep her quiet for the remainder of the service.

Such a tragedy. I am glad I was able to pay my respects to her and her family. Even though some silly fight drew us apart, she was always dear to me.