Posted by Jana (Springan) Abel on January 13, 2002 at 14:23:49:

It is really hard to believe I’m sitting here writing memories of Ann. I was so sure the whole time, that we would be sitting around listening to Ann tell the story sometime of how she was able to get out of the WTC. To me, Ann seemed invincible. My name is Jana and I am a high school classmate and long-time friend of Ann. We had not kept in touch the last couple of years, but I spent many years growing up with Ann. Even before we started school, we were friends. I have so many memories of Ann and can’t even get them all down on paper. I can still see Ann’s bright smile in my mind and I’ll never forget her infectious laugh.

I remember when we were young, Ann would sometimes start laughing so hard...and I mean so hard that she could not even control herself. Sometimes I would get irritated with her and want her to quit laughing, so I could tell her something else. But now, I’m so glad that I have those memories of her laughing.

Speaking of laughing so hard. I remember Jenette taking Ann and I to Minot to the State Fair one hot summer day. Once we got on Broadway, the car died and with the stress of it all, Ann started laughing so hard and could not quit. I remember it being absolutely hilarious because Jenette was not in a laughing mood and she was just worried about getting to the closest service station. But Ann was laughing so hard that every once in a while Jenette could not help but laugh because Ann was just out of control. I just remember sitting there and trying so hard not to laugh, but eventually giving in and dying laughing with Ann. I’m sure we were almost peeing our pants. Ann always seemed to make stressful times like that so much fun.

I remember Ann, I and Tammy (Elliason) Wilhelmi went to bible camp in Epping, ND. We all shared a cabin. During our stay, there were various occasions when Ann would get laughing so hard that she would end up peeing her pants. I don’t know if we never got it completely cleaned up or what, but by the end of the hot summer week, the cabin really started to smell. I just remember these guys coming to our cabin and stepping in and them saying “What the ---- is that smell! This only made Ann laugh even hardier.

I remember that Ann had the best slumber/birthday parties ever and she was always the best host. She would do whatever any of us friends would want to do. Everyone loved going to Ann’s birthday parties. They had a lot of room in their basement for lots of people. We would have pool tournaments at her house and no one could ever beat Ann in pool. We eventually wouldn’t let her play anymore. She was totally fine with that-I’m sure we weren’t much competition for her. I know everyone remembers playing ouija board. We turned off all the lights and we were convinced that we were moving bodies into the air with our fingers and we were all extremely freaked out. Some of us were so freaked that we didn’t want to do it anymore, but Ann insisted that if we all kept doing it that we could find the answers to a lot of things that we wanted to know. I remember at one of her birthday parties we thought it would be fun to sneak out of the house. I just know that when we got out, we did not have anywhere to go. It’s not like we were going to walk to town and even if we did go to town, we didn’t have anything to do there. Ann than taught us all the good hiding spots for hide and seek in the dark-which was so fun. We just had so much fun at her parties calling boys, watching movies, eating, staying up all night making-up skits and doing whatever. Ann loved having everyone out at her house and she always did such a good job of making sure that everyone was having fun.

I remember as young girls, we were always so scared of Ann’s dad, Gary. He was tall and had that deep voice that could carry throughout their house. He would come home when we were all there and yell Ann’s name really loud. We would always say to Ann-is your dad mad? She would always say no, he just likes to do that to see everyone’s reaction. She would always say, he never gets too mad. Ann always had this deep appreciation and respect for her dad. When I think of Ann and Gary, I think of Ann being “Daddy’s Girl”.

I remember post high school years, I spent a weekend with Ann at Lake Metigoshe. Ann and I went out one night and stayed out really late at a party. The next morning, Ann’s Dad yelled Ann’s name really loud and again I thought we were in trouble. I found myself asking Ann, is your Dad mad? Again she had no worries, she walks out and talks to her Dad and he just was laughing at how late we had stayed out. I know that Ann loved being at the lake so much. I know it was quiet time to spend with her parents or herself. You could see the peace she felt while she was there.

One time when we were quite young Ann was at my house playing and I wanted to play a trick on her by putting buttermilk instead of milk in a glass and have her drink it. I don’t know why I thought this would be funny. I just remember trying to convince her to have a glass of milk. She said that she wanted a glass of water and I said no, you can’t have water, it’s old!! Ann she said “what are you talking about, water is as old as the hills, and it doesn’t matter”. I said trust me, you don’t want water. So she finally took a sip of milk and I will never forget the look on her face. She said “Oh my God, I think something is really wrong with your milk!!”.

Ann was over at our house another time and my Dad was doing a Scramble the Words puzzle that he used to get in a quarterly publication. It was a pretty difficult puzzle. Ann and I sat down with him and Ann got most all of the words and quickly figured out the final clue, with minimum help from my Dad and I. I remember my Dad being so impressed with how bright Ann was, which was something I always knew. When the next publication came and he was having some trouble, he said “call Ann and have her come over-we need her!”. I know my parents really enjoyed having Ann around. She was always extremely polite and took time to talk with my parents.

Ann and I spent a lot of time golfing together. At first it started out that we just liked driving the golf carts. We eventually got bored with that and started golfing. I think that Ann was probably one of the best natural athletes that I knew. I know she was gone a whole summer one time and she came back and we went golfing and she beat me, no problem. I had been golfing all summer and she had not picked up a club the whole summer. She was like that with most every sport that she tried.

Ann truly had it all. She was beautiful, smart, athletic and had a great passion for living. There were many things that I got to do with Ann and I’m thankful for that. There are many things that we didn’t get to share with her and for that I will always be sad. There hasn’t been a day that I haven’t thought of Ann since this happened and I know that her memory will always be strong in my heart.