Later, my wife and I were walking by an REI near my parents' house when I noticed one of these redbud trees. We had lost our inflatable travel pillow on the flight over, and we had purchased it from REI which we were members of since living several years ago in the Seattle area where REI is based. So I stopped to take a closer look at this mysterious redbud tree, trying to see if it looked like some other tree I might be familiar with. Then I looked down and noticed a sign that said, "In Memory Of Gwyneth Jones Spangler."
Huh. I went to school with a Gwyneth Jones many years ago, but certainly this must be someone else. After all she would be around my age. And there are a surprising number of people named Gwyneth Jones, including a famous singer and a well-known novelist.
Later, at my parents' house we were looking at some old photos, including some grade-school class pictures, and my mom mentioned something about Gwyneth and cystic fibrosis. I didn't remember her having cystic fibrosis and had no idea what that disease was, but I decided to Google Gwyneth Jones Spangler on our Kindle Fire. An obituary article from the Baltimore Sun popped up. She passed away in 2008, four years ago. It also mentioned that she grew up on Seminary Avenue and her mother Drusilla - sure enough this was the Gwyneth I knew a long time ago.
I don't remember exactly how we met but it probably involved our parents looking for carpool partners at Lida Lee Tall Elementary. I went there from 1st through 3rd grade, which is when Gwyneth and I hung out the most. And then I transferred to Timonium Elementary. At that point we kind of lost touch for a while. Until she agreed to be my high school prom date. But of course, it's a really long time between age 8 and age 17. We had both changed and I don't think there was any real connection at that point unfortunately. And it didn't help that I was a shy, geeky teenager, and after six years of all-male schooling, completely hopeless at interacting with girls. I last saw her at another friend's party shortly after that, which was a reunion of ex-Lida Lee Tall students.
After finding the obituary, I started trying to remember her from back in my early grade school years, but there's not too much remaining in my brain from age 7 - just some vague snippets and random images. Some memory about a card game popped into my head - I don't really remember the game, or what it had to do with Gwyneth. I remember she liked telling classmates that she had naturally curly hair. I remember her red house on Seminary Avenue. There was an area near her house that we thought was haunted. She gave me a ring once that said I love you.
But one memory that sticks out is when she told me not to cry. It was just after school and we were waiting for our ride home. And with wisdom typical of 7-year-olds, somebody, I don't remember who, had the idea that it would be fun to hide from whichever parents were picking us up that day. So we hid for a while. And when we came out nobody was looking for us. I got scared and started to cry, and Gwyneth tried to reassure me, wiping my tears with her jacket. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably more like 5 minutes, the parents found us, and we rode home.
Even though it had been such a long time, finding out that she's gone was strangely haunting, possibly because she's the first classmate I know of who has passed away. Ah, Gwyneth, thanks for being a good friend, and for all the fun times way back when. And thanks for getting me to my high school prom. Goodbye, and rest in peace....
