This is part of an email to an old friend, Nancy...


I just started to write you, but the comp crashed. We'll see if I can get through this one before it happens again. Gotta love aol. So I washed that lunch bag you gave me for the first time yesterday. I've been using it for months, but it never got dirty until this week somehow. Anyway, as I was removing it from the washer, I noticed a pocket I'd never noticed before. And in it, $30. I had no idea! Thank you so much. You must have thought horrible things of me. I'm sorry I didn't find it to thank you sooner. Finding it brought me back to a different time. Since I came back I have worked really hard to forget everything that happened to me there. The trouble is that not everything was bad. I moved to Oakdale to start my life, my adult life. I planned to stay there with Kristin forever, or at least lay our roots there. You and Cath became my side of the family. When my family broke up, I still had you guys. You were all I had, my biological family was so far away, literally and figuratively. I don't think I ever thanked you guys for that. It meant more than you can imagine. It helped keep me alive. When I finally got away from everything, I was in so much pain, so broken, all I wanted to do was forget. To this day I can't allow myself to remember all of it. But no matter how hard I try, as time goes on, more and more is coming back. I don't want it to, but it's there. And some memories won't go away. I miss you and Cath, I miss Oakdale, I miss my cats and my home and my life.
I know it's late, and I know you guys have moved on, but I just wanted to thank you for everything. You saved me many times and in many ways.
Love,
Julie