Karen and I were good friends in junior high. She was way more sophisticated than I was, and I often wondered why she wanted to hang around with me, but we really had fun. We'd have sleepovers and sneak out at night to meet up with the boys and go pool hopping. Later when we were hanging out with the older boys, we'd stupidly leave a candle burning in the window when we sneaked out. That way, if the candle was still burning when we came home, we'd know that we weren't caught because surely my parents would have blown out the candle. We lost touch in our senior year but met up again briefly after college when she was living in NYC. It was just after the 20th reunion, which I did not know about until after the fact, that I called another friend to find out all the details and was told of Karen's passing. It was shocking and sad and still, whenever I think of Karen I wish I'd known she was ill. I would have reached out to her for sure, and reminded her of our awfully good times.