I've been planning my June wedding for a while now. Serena and I had emailed about it 6 months ago or so...Knowing how disorganized i am, she shared her list of important things and checked off each one i had accomplished to show me how easy it was and how it was all coming together despite how overwhelmed i felt!

Since she passed i've been dreading the big day and just how i would remember her on that day and how she could still be there with me. I've planned a memorial table to pay tribute, a contribution to her scholarship fund in my guests name....

Now, I doscovered today, quite by accident, that the flowers i have chosen for my wedding just so happen to be the "Serena" variety of Gerbera daisies!!! I knew she would find a way to be there with me...That, so far, has been the best part of the wedding planning!

Serena and I were always at each others house..We lived less than a mile from each other. We rode bikes back and forth or walked. One day we decided we were fed up and we were running away...oh yes, far far away! We packed up some personal belongings and snacks of course and rode off down the street. We had gone farther than we ever had and i think we both just wanted to turn around and go home! It might have been the ferocious barking dog in the one yard that helped us make up our minds.

I went home that night and was so relieved to see my mom. I think i went back to Serenas the next day and planned another escape though!!

One thing Serena and I had in common was the love of animals, for a while she was the only person I knew who had more pets than I did. Not only did she care for her two dogs (Missy and Ashley) and several cats, but also fed 20 to 30 stray cats, even after she moved from her place in Honesdale she continued to take them food each week. While living in Honesdale, Missy was outside eating the ground hogs, Ashley was eating through the bedroom doors, the stray cats were sitting on the outside of each window looking in when the food ran low and Kittens were breaking in through the front porch floor. More animals broke into her place than broke out. Serena was an animal magnet and took care of those who needed her.

Somehow, in college, Serena and Krissy convinced me it was a good idea to join co-ed arts fraternity, HBT, to which they belonged. Later on I realized it was the best decision I made in college. HBT was a band of brothers that accepted each other for who they were, even if they didn't know who they were yet. As part of the pledging process, the brothers would give pledges little tasks and things to collect.

One day while sitting in the common area of the main dining hall, we were eating some food, talking, whatever. I was eating my yearly quota on Ben and Jerry’s ice cream for the year in about 2 weeks. I always got my new favorite ice cream, Chunky Monkey. Anyway, so sitting there eating my ice cream, Serena is trying to think of what devious little task she can give me. Serena had no mercy when it came to doling out embarrassing tasks. She instructed me to create a song based on my ice cream flavor to the tune of the Brady Bunch theme…and then sing it to every brother I passed on campus…every time I saw them. Needless to say, Serena got a good laugh out of my embarrassment. She had the BEST laugh! We had many laughs together. I miss that most of all.

Serena and I roomed together at Mansfield. For me it was my first taste of freedom...no rules, no parents to answer to and no curfew! Mansfield was great...small town with big minds and plenty of life to live. We stayed up late more often than not...and usually at some point got a hankerin' for something other than ramen noodles in a hot pot! Our dorm was about 3 or 4 blocks from "downtown". I use that term lightly as town consisited of 2 banks, 1 gas station, 2 pizza places, a hotel and grocery store a half mile away.

anyway,....there was also a Dunkin donuts! Nothing like an egg and cheese bagel and hot chocolate at 3am!! I remember walking down one night in the snow...It was quiet and crisp. I think we were the only ones out there....We sat at Dunkin and ate and smoked our Marlboro lights...we were cool...just plain cool! Two small town best friends together....always...