September 2, 1999
"When I was 9, and she was 11, her family moved in to the vacant "house on the hill" that was my favorite hiding place. Our bond - from the very beginning - has been comparable to the stories of twins' experiences. We became each other's haven. As little girls, we would play house and magic, and act out all our favorite books/movies/t.v. shows. Our play became the excuse to touch and hold. Our characters became the life I existed for, and reality was a dream I had to endure. I could be everything in my characters that I could not be in reality, and I could express myself through my characters in all the ways that I could not express in reality. It's only as I embrace the pieces of gifts that life has given me, that I have been able to, step by step, merge myself into the woman I am inside, that I was meant to be. The more I can embrace the raw pain, the brutal truth and the harsh reality, the more of those magical years I can remember and cherish, and the more I fall in love with my best friend. People always remember things how they want them to be, bad or good or not at all. At the same time, I honestly don't think I'm experiencing a feeling associated with a memory... "