I’m a sucker for a
reunion. A missing cat returns to
its owner, the Brady Bunch gets back together, a lone sock reunites with its
long lost mate—whatever it is, there is just something about a reunion that
makes me smile. So yesterday was a very special day for me because I got to be a part of the reunion between
Amy Spear and the student ID she lost twenty-eight years ago.
If you’re just tuning in
to this tale of strange coincidences and internet stalking, you may want to
take a moment to catch up with Part 1 and Part 2 of the story. The short version is that during my
freshman year at UT, I found underneath my bed the ID card of a girl who lived
in the room ten years before me.
Last week, I posted a picture of the card on my blog and asked my
readers to help me find her.
Within twenty-four hours, we were Facebook friends.
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| I saw this on my way to meet Amy. It seemed appropriate for the occasion. |
Meeting Amy Spear
I arrived at Starbucks
(our designated meeting spot) first.
When Amy arrived, I recognized her at once. She immediately gave me a big smile and a hug, which is when
I noticed how much taller she is than I am. Then we sat
down at a table with our drinks (chai for me and an Americano with a few
embellishments for her) and got to know each other. I had worried that the meeting might be awkward, that she
would be hesitant to share things with me, and long silences would punctuate
our time together. But my
anxieties were unfounded because Amy was chatty and friendly from the moment
she walked in. During the hour we
spent with one another, we talked about everything from middle school English
classes to how glad we are that Facebook did not exist when we were in college. Honestly, it really did feel more like
a reunion of old friends than a first time meeting. I dug the treasures from Jester room M645 out of my purse
and spread them on the table. We
laughed over the relics dating back to 1977 and hypothesized about how fate had
landed them beneath the dorm room bed.
Then I had a few questions for this woman who I had been curious about
for so long.
What was her UT experience like?
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| Jester Dorm |
Amy started out as an
economics major, but ended up earning a degree in both economics and
accounting. She later graduated
from UT Law School. She said her
friends were surprised to learn that she lived in Jester, the giant,
prison-like dorm at UT. Amy said,
“I didn’t know any better!” She
came to UT from out of state and wasn’t familiar with the dorm options. She roomed during her freshman year
with a girl she had met during orientation.
Amy was a good student and
hard worker, but she also knew how to have fun. When she heard that her college ID had been found in her old
dorm room, she asked, “Which one?
My real one or my fake one?”
The legal drinking age in Texas was nineteen in 1985 (it was raised to
twenty-one in 1986) and Amy, a young freshman, had a little help getting
into some of the downtown clubs.
What’s her life like today?
It is apparent upon
meeting Amy that she is a happy person.
Her bubbly personality and big smile assure you of that. And why shouldn’t she be? It sounds like she has a great
life. Amy and her husband got
married in 1993 while they were both attending law school at UT, so by the time
I found her ID in 1996, she had already been going by her married name for
three years. She and her husband
have three children, two boys and a girl.
(Her friends think her 1985 photo looks a lot like her daughter.) Amy no longer practices law, but
she still works part time. She and
her husband just celebrated their twentieth wedding anniversary in—where else?—Austin. In fact, she was only a few miles from
my house the day I posted the story to my blog.
How did she react when she heard that I was looking for her?
Amy was on her way back
from Austin when her friend Julie called.
Julie had been contacted by her friend Missy who had been contacted by
my friend Bruce. (Only four
degrees separated us.) But at that
point Julie wasn’t entirely sure what she was getting her friend into. Her tone was careful and it put Amy on
guard. Julie asked slowly, “Did
you live in Jester in 1985?” When
Amy said yes, Julie told her that someone had found something in her old dorm
room and it was on the internet.
Amy asked, “Is it bad???”
Her trepidation was
understandable—I mean, who doesn’t
have a few skeletons in their college closet? But after she went to my blog and saw the full story, she
thought it was funny and sent me a friend request. We connected, and from there on out she was happy to participate
in my quest to reunite her with her ID card.
What’s the worst thing she's ever lost?
Her wedding ring. About a year ago, Amy lost the ring in
her office. She and her coworkers
have gone over and over the events of the day and have decided there is no
other place it could be than in the office, but despite their searching, it has
yet to turn up.
When I asked if the loss
was devastating to her, she said no, she dealt with it practically. It was just a thing after all. Although it was sad to lose the ring,
it doesn’t do anything to diminish the twenty happy years she’s had with her
husband—who, she noted, is on his third wedding band. She has a new ring now and knows the other one still may
turn up one day. She did say,
though, that since my friend Bruce is so good at finding things, she may need
him to come look around her office.
There would be more cookies for him if he found her ring!
What’s the strangest thing she's ever found?
She had to think on this
question and finally decided it
was some letters that were tucked away in a piece of built-in furniture in a
house she lived in. She contacted the previous owners and mailed the letters to
them. But she says she is the kind
of person who is more likely to lose things than find them.
And last, but not least, I
wanted to know…
How many people told her that she shouldn’t meet me because I was probably a psychopath?
Amy laughed at this and
shook her head as if it was a silly question, but then she went on to admit
that her husband had joked that she should get to the coffee shop early to case
the place and check me out,
and a friend of hers did a little internet searching of her own and gave Amy
the rundown on me—“married, no kids, she’s a writer.” Apparently nothing too incriminating showed up, because she
agreed to meet me. I wasn’t the
least offended by the caution, whether it was a joke or not. That just goes to show she has good
friends. (I have good friends
too. I had to text two different
people after I left Starbucks to assure them I had not been murdered or
kidnapped by Amy Spear.)The End of the Story
The hour I spent with Amy
passed quickly and all too soon it was time for her to pick up her daughter
from dance class. Before we
parted, however, Amy had a question for me. When her friend Julie called with the news of her
semi-stardom on my blog (and after she figured out that the found item was just
her ID card and none of those skeletons in her closet), her first thought was, WHY? “Why,” she asked me, “did you keep it all these years?” And for just a moment, her question
stumped me.
It’s true that I am
intrigued by lost items, and it’s also worth noting that these little Jester
treasures really didn’t take up any space in my life—they’ve spent the past
eighteen years tucked snugly between the pages of my journal. But there is more to it than just a fascination with the past and the fact
that storage wasn’t a problem. I’ve
only called myself a writer for a little over a year now, but I’ve always
wanted to be one. I’ve always
loved a good story. I think I keep
the strange things I find because deep down I think there might be a story behind
them, and if I hold onto them long enough, someday I’ll find it.
I no longer have Amy
Spear’s 1985 UT student ID card. I
gave it back. But I finally found its story, and because of that, I’m glad that I kept it all those years.
