Linda recounts a phone conversation with Mandy. An email from Linda to Tom on Feb. 6, 1999

Hi Tom,

I just spent about 1/2 hr. on the phone talking to Mandy. It was the best conversation we’ve ever had. It was a nice two-way conversation. She asked about my house and where Texas was and where I was and when I would come to her house. She was very patient in trying to understand it all. She thought that she and her dad and not Ashley had taken me to
Texas one time. She was remembering driving me to the airport — just her and Chris, so she was right. So I explained to her that I got on a plane after that and the plane took me to Texas.

I told her I have a picture of her and Ashley on my kitchen wall and I see her every day. She asked if I saw her when I wake up. I said no, not as soon as I wake up. But then I go into the kitchen to make my coffee because I have coffee every day, and that’s when I  see her and Ashley because they’re in the kitchen. She asked where my kitchen was and then my bedroom. I told her I go into the hallway and then to my bedroom. She told me that her room is in the hallway too and her and Ashley’s rooms are stuck together in the hallway.

She wanted to know what I was wearing. I told her I was in my pajamas because I’m at home and it’s nighttime. But she said no, she meant when I was dressed what was I wearing.  I know she really wanted to hear that I had worn a dress, but since that wasn’t true, I told her I had my nice shoes on today and she liked that.

She told me she likes school but not extended day — because of the “rest” which messes up her hair. She can feel it after she gets up, if she puts her hand on top of her head, that her hair is messy.

She gets scared in her room at night sometimes because she thinks there’s a monster. I asked if she ever saw one and she said no, just in her dream.  I told her how funny it is that no one’s ever really seen a monster — that I hadn’t ever seen one either, but I’ve seen one in my dreams.  She asked how I know that no one ever saw a monster.  I said I don’t know anyone who has, and she could ask everyone she knows if they’ve ever seen a monster and see what they say.

It was all so much fun. Seeing into her little mind, and her glimpsing into mine. Such a fun process of surprise and understanding.

Linda