The Casey Chronicles: Prologue

I walked into my fourth grade class and sat down at my assigned table.  There were several other kids as well, but the only person I really remember is Casey Allyn Gosnell.  It was my first year at this school, and as adept as I was at moving to new places, I was terrified.  There was never a spoken agreement that she would become my best friend, but after her simple introduction, I think we both knew.  It wasn’t as complicated back then, making friends.  We didn’t need to hold back for awhile to see if the other was trustworthy, we didn’t have some unspoken test the other had to pass before they could be deemed worthy of entering our lives; it was just pure and ready acceptance.  Our friendship started literally the moment she said, “Hi, I’m Casey” and I responded, “Hi, I’m Andrea”. 

                This incredible young woman put up with many difficult qualities about me throughout the eight years of our friendship.  She was the first to celebrate with me through the good news, and the first to cry with me over the bad news.   Casey was wise beyond her years, and I wore my immaturity on my sleeve.  I don’t know how she did it, but she stood by me through it all. 

Just three years after I met her, I was forced to move again.  I was so brokenhearted because I knew there would never be another Casey.  One day, before we left, I was at her house and we made a pact.  She promised for my sixteenth birthday, that she would come halfway across the country to celebrate with me.  The next four years were spent conspiring over long-distance phone calls, emails, and eventually Facebook.  When my sixteenth birthday was around the corner, Casey told me that she wasn’t going to be able to make it that year; her very wise parents wouldn’t let her drive by herself across the country at fifteen.  Though we were both disappointed, she promised me that she would find a way to come the next year.  When we were still a few months away from my seventeenth birthday, she called to tell me she had purchased a plane ticket.  That birthday was by far the best that I have ever had; it was also the last time I ever saw my best friend.

July 21^st, 2008 she died in a car accident.  There are times when the pain of missing her is so palpable that I just can’t stand to think about it.  But I don’t think that is right; Casey never did things the easy way, she did it the right way.  She deserves to be remembered and the best way I can think to do that is to tell the story of our friendship.  The Casey Chronicles are the start of remembrance of how she changed me; and even though it has been almost four years, she is still teaching me how to be a better friend and a stronger woman.