Courtney's Letter
5/10/04


Dear Matt,
I'm not really sure what to say. I just want to thank you for creating this website to honor our
sweet Tara. Tara was truly my best friend. I will never forget the day I met her. We were in the 9th
grade. I was sitting in Sunday School and our teacher walked in and introduced Tara to all of us. I
knew instantly that we would be really good friends. I had no idea that she would end up meaning so
much to me. Tara and I had the best times together. I remember our favorite thing to do was to go to
Taco Bell. We would do that every time she would come home for the weekend. Of course she never
wanted to do anything until around 11:00pm. So, Taco Bell was really the only place open at that
time of the night. We would just sit in "our" booth and talk for hours. I know that sounds really dumb
but that just shows you that Tara and I could have fun anywhere. Another memory I have. When we
were seniors in high school a bunch of us from church went on a cruise to Mexico. We had so much
fun. We went shopping every day. It was a lot of fun bargaining with all of the venders in Mexico.
Tara was really good at that. She ended up getting some pretty good deals on things. We also enjoyed
all the midnight meals. Tara and I had some really great times together. But we also had some really
rough ones. I will never forget how she would make me feel better no matter what. For example; Back
in October of 2000. I found out that I had a brain tumor. She was one of the first people I called
because I knew that she would know just the right thing to say to make me feel better. And she did.
She told me that everything would be alright. That we would get through this together. That just
shows what a gentle heart she had. And how much she cared about people. And this is one of the many
reasons why I loved her so much. Well, I will wrap this up. Just wanted to share some things about
Tara that are so special to me.
Thank you again for setting up this website honoring my best friend Tara.
Take care.
Courtney