Close friend from Pomona.
She went to Tokyo to teach English; I went to Denver. She eventually moved to London, married a Welshman named Chris Jones she met at a Trivial Pursuit party in Tokyo, had a son named Ben. Letters ran from 1988 through at least 1994.
Her summer 1988 letter from Portland — five pages of stream-of-consciousness with a collage of Willamette Week personals as a comic argument that Oregon is a haven for weirdos — is one of the best letters in the archive. She was working cocktail waitress shifts 9 PM to 3 AM while waiting to go back to Pomona College for senior year. She closed it: “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
One December 1992 letter arrived from Tokyo with a hand-drawn accordion-fold notebook and instructions for using it, closing with “GOZIRA BANZAI!” She went to Korea at Christmas and Thailand for New Year’s on almost no plans. She watched Twin Peaks episodes my mother sent on VHS tape, stuffing students into her apartment to watch.
Her get-well note from late 1990: “Have I ever told you you’re the best friend I’ve ever had?”
In 1999, after visiting her in Portland, I wrote: “I really love her — not as in love with her, but I really like spending time with her. And I hope I can find someone like her.”
Over the years I visited Portland enough to become friends with her parents separately from her. Her mom feeds people. Her dad and I drove around looking for car batteries.
Still in London.