Memories, light the corner of my mind . . .
Updated January 23, 2023:
Photos and stories will be used in a book that Amanda is writing about Teresa. One of the Sarcoma organizations has already offered to help market it. Teresa asked Amanda to promise to write the book; it was completely T’s idea. Of course, Teresa expected to be alive to see the finished product, so it’s become a harder, and much more emotional, task than Amanda originally planned. She finally started writing it in late 2022.
Originally we’d asked people to bring stories and photos to the Celebration of Life, but that didn’t pan out, and with the pandemic still going on, getting together to share photos in person isn’t the best plan! Amanda completely understand that you probably don’t want to mail precious copies of photos (risky even before USPS got really slow), so if you have physical photos to share, please reach out to Amanda, and she’ll walk you through getting the highest quality scan of the photo(s). Please make the subject line of your email: My Memory of Teresa. This will help us keep all the emails together.
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The story below about Amanda when she was very young is included to give you an idea of what we’re looking for style-wise.
“I remember this time when Mandy was little, maybe 8 months old, when my sister KC and I took her with us to the mall. One of the stores had a great old fashioned candy counter, and I saw some white chocolate bark, my favorite, and bought 5 pounds of it to go. Mandy was in her car seat between us in the front seat, just minding her own business, not making a sound, and without thinking we put the package into her car seat, sort of as a carry all.
We drove away chatting merrily, not paying her any mind, when suddenly we heard, “Mmmmmmmmmm!!!!” in this little tiny voice. We looked over at Mandy to find that she had gotten in to the bag of white chocolate, picked up one huge slab of bark in her little tiny hands, and was eating it like watermelon or corn on the cob. She had munched a huge semi-circle into the slab, had melted white chocolate all over her face and hands, and had the most wildly beatific glow of happiness on her face.
She was literally sweating with joy. She had found the love of her life! My sister KC started laughing so hard the tears were rolling down her face. She pounded her hands on the steering wheel, but she just couldn’t stop laughing!
And Mandy loves chocolate to this day!”
-Peg Ackley
Note: Stories about Teresa do not need to (and should not) be limited to childhood, this is just the best example we could share with all of you. It’s sweet, funny, and even though it’s short, provides emotion and detail. You can really imagine the scene and feel the hilarity of the moment. That’s what we need from you. A list of facts/statements is not a memory. We need to be able to feel the memory, feel the emotion. Only you know what emotion(s) go with that memory. We can’t add emotion in because we were not there for moments that happened before 2009. Memories rich with emotion will help keep those precious memories alive.
Send as many as you can think of, preferably just one per email so we can sort them easier going forward. If you have photos which accompany one (or more) of your memories, please let Amanda know and she will work out the best way for you to share it.
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