borrowed jewelry

SHARED BY MOLLY BREEN, WORK FRIEND

Anaal and I met working at Walden House in 2004 and stayed friends. I haven't been able to find any photos of us together because I'm the kind of person who never remembers to take pictures. Then the other day Shutterfly sent me photos from my wedding in 2012, probably trying to get me to buy an ornament or something. I saw the picture of me in my hot pink, extra large postpartum wedding dress and gasped. My husband and I got married at City Hall in SF with our four-month-old baby in tow, very last minute, just us and a witness. What I'd forgotten until I saw the picture is that Anaal, in a desperate effort to make me chic, had loaned me her beautiful gold earrings and bracelet. (She also booked me a blowout the morning of the wedding, but I didn't make it. To this day I've never had a blowout, but when I do, I'll think of Anu.) Of course I gave her the jewelry back, but right now, honestly, I wish I still had it, just to have a part of her with me. I miss her so much and feel so furious over her loss. Her generosity, her love of beauty, her devotion to friendship, her sense of humor-- all of it is captured for me in that image from my wedding. My hair was bad but my heart was full, and Anaal was a big part of that. I will love her and miss her for the rest of my life.