It’s my favorite angel’s 24th birthday
today. If you haven’t been to the
site created by her family in her memory (www.meganboken.com) then go check it out. It does a much better job
than I ever could of explaining how truly awesome she was, although words will
never do her justice.
Earlier this week I was on there and saw the clip posted
with her interview after she got defensive player of the week. I clicked on it to listen and
immediately paused after she started talking. It had been so long since I heard her voice. I clicked play again and she said my
name (of course I was the one to tell her that she got the award, that probably doesn't surprise my teammates!). I paused the video again and lost it. Tears were streaming down
my face. Yes, I still miss her. And yes, some days are tough. But I’m at peace
knowing that she is in a much better place and some day I will join her.
Since it is her birthday, I thought what better than to
share some of my favorite memories.
I treasure these so much more now. There are so many I can share, but
here are a few that stick out in my mind.
1.
The famous Hawaii airport “who packed the
chocolates” incident
This is one of my favorites that
gets told over and over again. Basically, when we were leaving Hawaii from our
tournament, a lot of people’s bags were over-weight. We were shuffling around items to get all of our bags under
weight. When we all finally got to the terminal, we were hungry, it was 11pm,
we had just played a game, and all the food places were closed. So we got the
food out of our bags and started throwing stuff around to find the chocolates.
They were nowhere to be found. Boken was the last to have them, so all eyes
turned on her. She had put the
chocolates in her checked bag and preceded to go off about how she was sorry
she checked the chocolates (with a few of her favorite words thrown in there.)
If you knew Bokes, you knew it took a lot to upset her and set her off.
Luckily, we were all able to immediately laugh about it and we all survived the
trip...and enjoyed the chocolates later.
2.
M&F class
Fall of my sophomore year (her
senior year) we got lucky enough to plan a class together. The better thing was that it was a marriage
and family class. This was a
perfect class for the two girls that always bonded over being the single
ones. We always had a lot to catch
up on in class, drew pictures on each other’s notes, and got yelled at by the
teacher to stop talking…A LOT. I’m surprised I ended up with an A in the class
because we were definitely not on his good side.
3.
Sunday afternoons
Some of our best quality time was
spent on Sunday afternoons. We
nicknamed these “Depressing Sundays” because most people went home. We thought
it would have been the perfect days to have boyfriends and hang out with
them. Since we didn’t have
boyfriends…we hung out with each other! We would share every detail of our
lives (or at least I would), eat whole tubs of Sabra hummus, spend quality time
with cheetah blanket, and go for rides in the Jeep.
4.
Locker room Dance
Her famous “Open Swim” dance would come out
before every game. It was the
Baywatch theme song, I’m Always Here by Jimi Jamison. At her pool back home, they would play
this song when the kids could go back into the pool after a break. She had a lovely interpretive dance
that went with it and became a staple of our pregame routine. The smile and
look on her face when she danced to it was priceless, something I always think about when I hear the song.
I love looking back and thinking of all the
times we spent together. I’m so thankful for the time I knew her and all the
smiles and laughs I got to share with her. She was such a special person and always saw the positive and loved life. Happy 24th birthday Bokes, hope you’re having a
blast in Heaven J
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