| I
have so many memories of Jeremy, but most of them are from early
childhood, and most of them are only snapshots or impressions of larger
events. I remember the forts we used to build in his back room
with all of the blankets in the house, or covering his wall with
stickers and then watching him move upstairs, or eating Mac &
Cheese, or music camp or the Boundary Waters. I remember how I
spent the night once, and Jeremy had a pacifier. I was so
jealous, but when I asked, I wasn't allowed to borrow his. I
remember most of all how Jeremy teased me, but he was never mean, and
with a few exceptions, he never excluded me. I was always welcome
to join his and Pete's games of pegging each other with the fallen
apples in my backyard. As we grew older, the teasing continued,
but it became less frequent, finally turning into one last inside joke
about age. I was trying to convince him, for some reason or
other, that I was older, and he was arguing his part. "But I'm older than you are!" "No you're not. Who was born first?" "That doesn't matter, Anyway, I was born first." "No you weren't!" "Clearly you don't understand." And so on. . . This was a joke that came up every time I saw him after that, if only for a brief moment, and it was usually Jeremy who brought it back. My last communication with Jeremy began when I sent him an e-mail for his birthday. He wrote back, grateful that I had accepted that he was older. I returned the e-mail, writing the obvious: even though he had just turned 18 and I was still 17, I was still very much older. I'm glad to have that as my last impression of Jeremy because it was his teasing that always brought us together, and now it's those memories that I will keep with me forever. Katie Ortner (The Ortner and Amor-Gold families have been close since our kids were infants. Here's a photo of Katie and Jeremy. |