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Hi mom. I love you. I really wish you were here with us.

This is to add on to the memory of my daughter's memory of the summer of "Raven".

Upon our arrival to the cabin, the first girl who used the bathroom came and said, "it's overflowing" The job of locating the lid to the septic tank. Mike and April (sorry Pat) started digging holes searching. (the septic is now marked for location). Hot and frustrated they took a break. This is when the neighbor's renter came over to over help. Let me just say that the day brightened for all of us girls! We referred to him as Stud Muffin. I don't remember the conversation that took place, I think April and I just stared in awe! Stud Muffin grabbed a shovel and started digging with Mike. The living room couch was up against the back window at the time, April and I watched (STARED) out the window the whole time :) Our daughters joined us, so we stopped making comments (which I am sure were totally inappropriate for our daughters). Yes, they found the septic, dug the all the way to the opening to the cabin, the guy showed up to clean it out and save the day considering there were 5 girls in the house. Needless to say, Pat never stopped teasing April. He joked to her that she doesn't get to see the glistening sweat on a body like Stud Muffin. April and I laughed about that day forever.

One of my favorite childhood memories with mom is when she came home from work after a 24 hour shift or longer and she would bring home Alden and I “Sea Monkeys” when we were young kids a few times a year.

Mom would come home after a very long work day with these little fish kits and she would always smile when she saw Alden and I get really excited that she brought home “Sea Monkeys” for us.

Calum (Jimmy and my best friends kid) is 3 years old now and he has recently become obsessed with everything related to sea creatures recently. Which immediately brought me back to this special part of my childhood, (my mom buying us Sea Monkeys after work on occasion).

So, Jimmy and I will be getting Calum “Sea Monkeys” for Christmas this year. I hope Calum thinks they are as cool as I thought they were when I was a little kid.

I love you so much mom. Thanks for always trying to make special memories with Alden and I when we were kids, no matter how tired you were. You have always been a thoughtful and loving mom.

It was summertime at Lake Chelan. I was 12 or 13. My family and the Dehuffs were spending our annual or biannual vacation weeks lounging at the cabin or, more often, spending long hours with wind lapping at our faces, water pooling in the corners of our eyes as we sped along the lake in Pat and April's boat. I can still smell the leather seats mixed with lake water and fresh towels, hear the sound of legs as they peel off the white and blue chairs, preparing to launch into the water. There were always grapes. I liked that the April and Pat always packed grapes.

When we needed to refuel the boat we floated over to Kelly's Resort, a mainstay in Lake Chelan that offers waterfront access to guests, a small store with ice cream, and gas for boats. The gas part of this story is important. Kelly's relied on seasonal workers to staff the gas station, who inevitably turned out to be young and male, and most of the time, the nature of their job did not require shirts... I loved getting gas.

This particular summer, there was a specific gas station attendant often on duty. Now, there is the speed at which light and sound travel, the speed at which electrical pulses in our brains transmit signals to our nerves and other neurons, and, much faster than all of those, there is the speed at which a 12 year old girl can fall completely in love with a charming, curly-haired, board-shorts donning teenager. April was very observant and immediately caught onto this. One day at the dock she asked, "what's your name?"

"Raven,"

Oh dear god, he had a name? This only intensified the crush for Seneca and I. From then on, "Raven" became a frequent topic of conversation; April would giggle and smile at us girls, no doubt finding immense humor in our affliction. She would say his name in a melodic, teasing way, laughing all the while, and joking about when our next gas station visit would be. We may have broken a record for number of visits to Kelly's that summer.

April loved these small chapters of our innocence and youth, she found them hilarious. I really appreciated that. By acknowledging that she saw me, that she could see right through my feigned nonchalance as we pulled up to the gas station, when secretly I was fervently scanning the dock for a mop of dark curls, made me feel seen, like the labyrinth of adolescent emotion could be humorous and exciting. I doubt I ever spoke a word to Raven that summer, but the memory of April's joy at the silly crush is a fond one.

Just little things I've been remembering...

• Starbucks coffee and Bailey's coffee creamer

• Always wearing a white t-shirt

• Her diamond heart necklace, always on

• Hair half-up, rarely ever was it fully down

  
  

• "M and T" "Little Man" "Senny" "Patman"