Ashley

Ashley Sherman

Age: 24

Born: 01/28/1986

Died:10/29/2010

This is Ashley as I knew her.

We met the night I started going to church regularly. Paul drove me to church that night and I was in the back seat when they arrived, he in the driver's seat and her next to him. It wasn't until a month later that they started dating. I knew he liked her from the beginning. I was very reclusive back then and didn't get to know her much. Or so I thought. I learned her favorite color was green and she wanted to be a teacher. She was the head of the church puppet team and loved children. She was held back early on in grade school and graduated high school in 2005, the same year I did. She was also a strong Christian.

We hung out a few times after her and Paul broke up, but just as friends, nothing more. I haven't seen her since 2007 when I took a cab out to Belleville, MI where she lived. We had lunch and, later, dinner. I took a cab back and hadn't seen her in person since.

We texted and talked since then, but by that point I was living in Arizona. I learned a lot more about her. She hated her family, but loved them much. She felt repressed and blamed for everything. She was so eager to move out, but with school and bills couldn't afford it. She still went to church, but was no longer a Christian. I don't know at what point she started questioning, but she realized the only people who cared when she went to church were her parents, and that was only because of their reputations. She still loved children, but wasn't so eager to have any of her own anytime soon. She started drinking and partying with new friends. She started living. When she finally started living, she finally moved out, she was close to graduating, and she died.

  She loved reading even though she had dyslexia and trouble spelling. Her favorite genres were the vampire  romance, horror, and fantasy. She used to love Twilight and True Blood. She also read the complete Sword of Truth series and many Stephen King books. It was from her recommendation that I started reading Wizard's First Rule.

  I can't say with certainty whether she was a Christian or not, but her parents seem to think so. But, then again, they never really knew her. Not the real her. She put on the Christian facade for them and the church-goers. Her dad was a deacon and pastor, her mother lead children's church. Only them. Only they judged. Us non-Christians didn't judge her for her actions. I knew she was finally starting to be happy, be free. She was going to visit me here soon. And she was going to be my date to my cousin's wedding in May.

I hope she was happy.

I loved her, but I could never say it. And now its too late.

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