Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2015 15:37:19 GMT -5
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ADALENA ROSE REID
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hello, you must be ms reid. we'll start small - introduce yourself.
"that's mrs reid, actually...well i guess i shouldn't say that anymore since xris was proclaimed dead, i'm sure you have that on your little clipboard...but it feels wrong to go back to ms because even after four years without him i still love him and see him as my husband. that's getting too deep for the start of this interview though...you probably don't want my life story just yet. quite a story it is though.
anyways my name is adalena rose reid, my initials are arr like a pirate and I think that's pretty neat. better than my maiden name, marlowe, which made my initials arm. seriously mom and dad, didn't you think that through? back when xris was...here i liked to go by addie, he always called me that, but since his..departure i've gone by lena if someone wants a short form of my name. i don't like my middle name, it's super boring, so honestly it's only used on legal forms or if i'm in big trouble despite the fact that i'm and adult and my dad and stepmom live in Florida. when I hear the full name it's like I'm twelve again and was caught climbing out of my bedroom window to go play soccer in the park when grounded.
oh, probably should mention that i'm twenty seven (and three quarters, thank you very much. i teach kindergarten so i get to spend my days with awesome little people who seem almost permanently happy. it's wonderful and I really enjoy my job. there's always some art project scattered around the apartment getting ready to be presented to the kids. "
well that's...quite an introduction.
"ooh yeah my bad, i'm a huge chatterbox so sometimes i start and just don't stop talking. it's a problem, i ramble a lot so just call me in or something if you get annoyed."
so what's your housing situation like?
"you know how i know that you have a script? 'housing situation' that's hilarious. who even says that?
i live in a gorgeous apartment in the midst of new york city with equally beautiful views. xris and i found it when we were looking for a place less than a year before he left. it was a dump so we got it dirt cheap. seriously, nothing had been updated, a wall was ready to collapse and the bathroom was green with mold. i was pretty hesitant but xris thought it could be redeemed so we got it. it wasn't even livable for months and we spent all our free time working on but it was wonderful. when he left, we were fully moved in and the only thing left was our master - we were in the guest room waiting for the flooring to come in (they didn't install it all at once) and I was dragging my feet finding a new bedroom set. i wanted to wait for when xris was back for it to be done...when they told me they assumed he was killed in action and i should move on (which got that guy reported to his commanding officer because you don't say that to a new widow...or try and slip your card into her back pocket) i decided i had to finish it for the both of us. xris wanted the lovely two bedroom apartment to be completed and i felt i owed him that. my goodness, the apartment is beautiful and every corner has something that makes me both smile and want to cry because there is some memory or some trinket that reminds me of xris.
one of my closest friends, dave, who was the rock i held on to in the storm has tried to get me to move out, to try to start anew with xris gone. this is the same guy that tried to get me to take off my wedding ring and set me up on my first date a few months ago. i love him like a brother but he doesn't understand, there are so many memories of xris and they might make me sad sometimes but they're all good memories. we fixed this place together and i won't let someone else live in what was our paradise."
a date, you say? how did that go?
"terrible. you have no idea how awful it was. i only agreed because dave set me up with a friend of his in an attempt to make me to socialize. sure, sean seemed like a nice enough guy but i felt like i was cheating on my husband. i must have been talking about xris constantly because halfway through the date sean just stormed off saying he'd never compete with 'perfect xris' and you know what? he really couldn't. i ate an entire piece of cheesecake by myself, paid the bill and went home and went through our wedding album and cried.
i've tried to move on and i can't. i've resigned myself to knowing xris was my soulmate and my only true love so my future is going to be being married to a dead man, a widow who doesn't want anyone else. i'm thinking about just being a crazy cat lady - in fact, the next day i went to the animal shelter and got the sweetest eight year old orange tabby named george and having him has helped. so i already have one cat for my future crazy cat lady arsenal. also i have an adorable cat sweater that i pretend i don't only have for bad sweater days at school."
we're going to go down into darker paths soon...what are your parents like?
"okay, well that's an entirely different topic and quite a jump but you're the boss i suppose. well from what i've been told my parents met when they were in their twenties and i was the result of the first time they slept together when they were dating. yeah, my dad, nicholas mariano, gets a little too willing to share secrets when he's drunk (and that is why i know my stepmother has a tattoo in an intimate place...thanks dad, that'll only give me a few nightmares.) there's no illusions, my parents just weren't a good couple. they didn't have much in common and neither was happy when they were together because they were always arguing. they tried though and got married when my mom, jessica dale, was eight months pregnant. it lasted until i was eight and they decided i was old enough to be sat down and told that mommy and daddy were going to separate but it wasn't because of me and they still loved me.
my stepmother came into the picture when i was nine. her name is clara lanvers and she really doesn't embody the 'evil stepmother'. i tried to make her that at first but she's a genuinely nice person and i like her, she's perfect for my dad. my parents shared custody so every few weeks i'd switch houses and spend time with the other parent, it honestly wasn't a big deal. they lived close to each other and there was no hurt feelings or badmouthing of the other parent, they knew their relationship didn't work and they parted amicably. they moved to florida a few months after xris and i got married, my dad works as an architect and clara is a hair stylist.
unfortunately, i don't have a happily every after for my mom. when i was a few weeks shy of eleven she died. it was completely unexpected and autopsy later found she had a heart condition that she wasn't aware of. there had been no reason to test her heart, nobody thought that there was anything wrong. it would have shown up in tests, too, so the 'what ifs' still haunt me. i got tested when i turned eighteen and fortunately i don't have her condition. it's easy to take about the condition clinically but then...i remember that it's my mom. it's been hard, not having a mom when i had my first boyfriend or to gossip with when xris and i got engaged. my dad and clara came with me to choose a dress for my wedding and i cried in the fitting room because i didn't have my mom with me either. i miss her and she would have just adored xris. i hope..they can finally meet."
it's time..can you talk about your husband?
xris...is the most wonderful person that has ever lived and i hate that the world can't see him any longer. he's outgoing, loving, strong and the most loyal person that i ever met. we met in eighth grade and started dating in high school. we sort of just became xris and addie, people knew us from being an us. we had friends off on our own and we didn't always hang out with each other but in the end it was like a string tied us together and we always ended up migrating towards each other when we could. even years of dating and i still felt that xris looked at me with the same adoring and loving look in his eyes that he did the first time he told me he loved me. he is...i guess i have to face the fact that i need to say that he was but i hate thinking about it.
xris was loyal, smart and amazing. he enlisted and never showed fear when he went away. he would write to me when he could, i still have handwritten letters that he sent to me when it was possible. he disappeared in 2010 in iraq. he was in a humvee, i know that, with his squad and...that's all they know. after a while, they told me they assumed he was killed in action, either taken hostage and later murdered or died when the humvee exploded - all there was left was pieces and a grenade. i had no body to bury, just an empty casket.
what happened when you were told he was mia, later kia?
"you want to just hit me where it hurts, eh? two soldiers knocked on my door, hats off and i knew something was awful. i hadn't spoken to xris recently but sometimes missions went longer than anticipated so i wasn't worried. i didn't want to open the door, i just stared out the peephole and tried to pretend it was a mistake, they were at the wrong door. when they came in, they sat me down and told me what happened. at the time, they just said missing because they had no real proof that he was gone. i remember just being shell shocked. they patted me on the shoulder and told me i would be informed of any news. i must have sat there for hours, just staring at the coffee table we had picked out together only months before. i had insisted on the table, i had seen something that wasn't easily seen in it and when it was brought back, buffed and painted it turned out to be gorgeous. i had kissed xris when it came out like i imagined and it was hard to think that moments like that would never happen again.
i was informed he was being declared dead, killed in action, a year after his disappearance. they had found blood and the fabric tag that had xris's name stitched on it near that pool of blood. assumption was that he was killed and then disposed of. there was a lot of blood, they never tested it if it was his but they told me it was only a matter of identification and they weren't going to waste resources on it. i raged, i cried and then one of the soldiers sent to see me tried to make a pass on me, sticking his card in my back pocket. i went crazy on him - screamed and punched his nose before the other soldier apologized and took him away. i called his commanding officer and complained but hitting him didn't even help a fraction of the misery i felt knowing that my xris must have suffered before he died. that i was alone."
our time is almost up so i'd like to ask -what are your plans for the future, miss reid?
"your guess is as good as mine. like i said, i think i'll become a crazy cat lady. i can't date again, my heart is forever married to xris, death does not part us and i could never betray him like that. i'll try to keep friends, live a life that would have made xris happy but i don't think i can love again. so i guess it'll just be me and george and whatever other cats i eventually hoard against the world."
hello, you must be ms reid. we'll start small - introduce yourself.
"that's mrs reid, actually...well i guess i shouldn't say that anymore since xris was proclaimed dead, i'm sure you have that on your little clipboard...but it feels wrong to go back to ms because even after four years without him i still love him and see him as my husband. that's getting too deep for the start of this interview though...you probably don't want my life story just yet. quite a story it is though.
anyways my name is adalena rose reid, my initials are arr like a pirate and I think that's pretty neat. better than my maiden name, marlowe, which made my initials arm. seriously mom and dad, didn't you think that through? back when xris was...here i liked to go by addie, he always called me that, but since his..departure i've gone by lena if someone wants a short form of my name. i don't like my middle name, it's super boring, so honestly it's only used on legal forms or if i'm in big trouble despite the fact that i'm and adult and my dad and stepmom live in Florida. when I hear the full name it's like I'm twelve again and was caught climbing out of my bedroom window to go play soccer in the park when grounded.
oh, probably should mention that i'm twenty seven (and three quarters, thank you very much. i teach kindergarten so i get to spend my days with awesome little people who seem almost permanently happy. it's wonderful and I really enjoy my job. there's always some art project scattered around the apartment getting ready to be presented to the kids. "
well that's...quite an introduction.
"ooh yeah my bad, i'm a huge chatterbox so sometimes i start and just don't stop talking. it's a problem, i ramble a lot so just call me in or something if you get annoyed."
so what's your housing situation like?
"you know how i know that you have a script? 'housing situation' that's hilarious. who even says that?
i live in a gorgeous apartment in the midst of new york city with equally beautiful views. xris and i found it when we were looking for a place less than a year before he left. it was a dump so we got it dirt cheap. seriously, nothing had been updated, a wall was ready to collapse and the bathroom was green with mold. i was pretty hesitant but xris thought it could be redeemed so we got it. it wasn't even livable for months and we spent all our free time working on but it was wonderful. when he left, we were fully moved in and the only thing left was our master - we were in the guest room waiting for the flooring to come in (they didn't install it all at once) and I was dragging my feet finding a new bedroom set. i wanted to wait for when xris was back for it to be done...when they told me they assumed he was killed in action and i should move on (which got that guy reported to his commanding officer because you don't say that to a new widow...or try and slip your card into her back pocket) i decided i had to finish it for the both of us. xris wanted the lovely two bedroom apartment to be completed and i felt i owed him that. my goodness, the apartment is beautiful and every corner has something that makes me both smile and want to cry because there is some memory or some trinket that reminds me of xris.
one of my closest friends, dave, who was the rock i held on to in the storm has tried to get me to move out, to try to start anew with xris gone. this is the same guy that tried to get me to take off my wedding ring and set me up on my first date a few months ago. i love him like a brother but he doesn't understand, there are so many memories of xris and they might make me sad sometimes but they're all good memories. we fixed this place together and i won't let someone else live in what was our paradise."
a date, you say? how did that go?
"terrible. you have no idea how awful it was. i only agreed because dave set me up with a friend of his in an attempt to make me to socialize. sure, sean seemed like a nice enough guy but i felt like i was cheating on my husband. i must have been talking about xris constantly because halfway through the date sean just stormed off saying he'd never compete with 'perfect xris' and you know what? he really couldn't. i ate an entire piece of cheesecake by myself, paid the bill and went home and went through our wedding album and cried.
i've tried to move on and i can't. i've resigned myself to knowing xris was my soulmate and my only true love so my future is going to be being married to a dead man, a widow who doesn't want anyone else. i'm thinking about just being a crazy cat lady - in fact, the next day i went to the animal shelter and got the sweetest eight year old orange tabby named george and having him has helped. so i already have one cat for my future crazy cat lady arsenal. also i have an adorable cat sweater that i pretend i don't only have for bad sweater days at school."
we're going to go down into darker paths soon...what are your parents like?
"okay, well that's an entirely different topic and quite a jump but you're the boss i suppose. well from what i've been told my parents met when they were in their twenties and i was the result of the first time they slept together when they were dating. yeah, my dad, nicholas mariano, gets a little too willing to share secrets when he's drunk (and that is why i know my stepmother has a tattoo in an intimate place...thanks dad, that'll only give me a few nightmares.) there's no illusions, my parents just weren't a good couple. they didn't have much in common and neither was happy when they were together because they were always arguing. they tried though and got married when my mom, jessica dale, was eight months pregnant. it lasted until i was eight and they decided i was old enough to be sat down and told that mommy and daddy were going to separate but it wasn't because of me and they still loved me.
my stepmother came into the picture when i was nine. her name is clara lanvers and she really doesn't embody the 'evil stepmother'. i tried to make her that at first but she's a genuinely nice person and i like her, she's perfect for my dad. my parents shared custody so every few weeks i'd switch houses and spend time with the other parent, it honestly wasn't a big deal. they lived close to each other and there was no hurt feelings or badmouthing of the other parent, they knew their relationship didn't work and they parted amicably. they moved to florida a few months after xris and i got married, my dad works as an architect and clara is a hair stylist.
unfortunately, i don't have a happily every after for my mom. when i was a few weeks shy of eleven she died. it was completely unexpected and autopsy later found she had a heart condition that she wasn't aware of. there had been no reason to test her heart, nobody thought that there was anything wrong. it would have shown up in tests, too, so the 'what ifs' still haunt me. i got tested when i turned eighteen and fortunately i don't have her condition. it's easy to take about the condition clinically but then...i remember that it's my mom. it's been hard, not having a mom when i had my first boyfriend or to gossip with when xris and i got engaged. my dad and clara came with me to choose a dress for my wedding and i cried in the fitting room because i didn't have my mom with me either. i miss her and she would have just adored xris. i hope..they can finally meet."
it's time..can you talk about your husband?
xris...is the most wonderful person that has ever lived and i hate that the world can't see him any longer. he's outgoing, loving, strong and the most loyal person that i ever met. we met in eighth grade and started dating in high school. we sort of just became xris and addie, people knew us from being an us. we had friends off on our own and we didn't always hang out with each other but in the end it was like a string tied us together and we always ended up migrating towards each other when we could. even years of dating and i still felt that xris looked at me with the same adoring and loving look in his eyes that he did the first time he told me he loved me. he is...i guess i have to face the fact that i need to say that he was but i hate thinking about it.
xris was loyal, smart and amazing. he enlisted and never showed fear when he went away. he would write to me when he could, i still have handwritten letters that he sent to me when it was possible. he disappeared in 2010 in iraq. he was in a humvee, i know that, with his squad and...that's all they know. after a while, they told me they assumed he was killed in action, either taken hostage and later murdered or died when the humvee exploded - all there was left was pieces and a grenade. i had no body to bury, just an empty casket.
what happened when you were told he was mia, later kia?
"you want to just hit me where it hurts, eh? two soldiers knocked on my door, hats off and i knew something was awful. i hadn't spoken to xris recently but sometimes missions went longer than anticipated so i wasn't worried. i didn't want to open the door, i just stared out the peephole and tried to pretend it was a mistake, they were at the wrong door. when they came in, they sat me down and told me what happened. at the time, they just said missing because they had no real proof that he was gone. i remember just being shell shocked. they patted me on the shoulder and told me i would be informed of any news. i must have sat there for hours, just staring at the coffee table we had picked out together only months before. i had insisted on the table, i had seen something that wasn't easily seen in it and when it was brought back, buffed and painted it turned out to be gorgeous. i had kissed xris when it came out like i imagined and it was hard to think that moments like that would never happen again.
i was informed he was being declared dead, killed in action, a year after his disappearance. they had found blood and the fabric tag that had xris's name stitched on it near that pool of blood. assumption was that he was killed and then disposed of. there was a lot of blood, they never tested it if it was his but they told me it was only a matter of identification and they weren't going to waste resources on it. i raged, i cried and then one of the soldiers sent to see me tried to make a pass on me, sticking his card in my back pocket. i went crazy on him - screamed and punched his nose before the other soldier apologized and took him away. i called his commanding officer and complained but hitting him didn't even help a fraction of the misery i felt knowing that my xris must have suffered before he died. that i was alone."
our time is almost up so i'd like to ask -what are your plans for the future, miss reid?
"your guess is as good as mine. like i said, i think i'll become a crazy cat lady. i can't date again, my heart is forever married to xris, death does not part us and i could never betray him like that. i'll try to keep friends, live a life that would have made xris happy but i don't think i can love again. so i guess it'll just be me and george and whatever other cats i eventually hoard against the world."
DIANNA AGRON - LOCAL - WRITTEN BY CACE
