Tami would have turned 50 this year. Today, July 12, 2008, is the 32nd anniversary of her death. We met in 1972 at Ed White. She was my first friend in Alabama, and what I’d have done without her I do not know. After starting high school in Alexandria, Virginia, where I was raised, I had to move to Huntsville, which at the time was like moving to another planet. Tami was the first person to smile at me, to introduce herself, to invite me over. She was the nicest person I had ever met, in addition to being curious and hilarious. She asked all kinds of questions about me and everything else, and was always making me laugh. I adored her and her family. When she moved to Monte Sano, we wound up at different schools – she went to Huntsville, I went to Butler – but we remained best friends. When she died, we were all set to be college roommates at the University of Montevallo. In memory of who she was and what she still means to me, I’d like share the following excerpts -- the first is what she wrote in one of my yearbooks, the second is from my daughter Emma’s baby book, put together in 1993, the year Emma was born. I haven’t forgotten you, Tami, and never will. Melissa Eskridge Slaymaker Knoxville, TN meslaymaker@bellsouth.net