I MADE THIS FOR GEORGIANA'S BIRTHDAY BACK IN OCTOBER

I WROTE THIS FOR GEORGIANA'S BIRTHDAY BACK IN OCTOBER

All I’m trying to say is I think you’re just the best.  Love from Courtney Anne.

1.

Georgiana:

I was so nervous to move into the house on 750 N 1000 E.  I was coming back to Provo after a long hiatus and nothing felt the same.  I only half-knew Meg Wiemer.  (I think you can only ever half-know Meg Wiemer.)  I thought I was moving in with a girl named Hannah I knew from American studies classes at BYU.  It turned out to be our lawyer-girl Hannah Graves.  I mixed up their last names.  I don’t think I ever told either of them that.  I was scared of having my own room.  I was scared of the handprints in the closet, two red handprints that someone left on the inside of the white closet door.  I was scared of newness and coming back to the unfamiliar.

I didn’t know not to worry.

I loved every minute, and the quietness of the crowd we ended up living with.  I loved watching you and Chaunte dance in the living room that December under the Christmas decorations.  A plie from a ballerina and swishing hips from swing dancers doing the twist across every inch of the carpet.  I loved the personality and designing smile you brought in with box after box and suitcase after broken suitcase.  All of your smashed possessions shipped from states away.  A little girl from the big city back home to the little city again.  And you were so upset about the cracked chandelier (one of two?) that I don’t think we ever fixed.  And you were so upset about your brother’s book, a present, a present that came home banged up before you could give it to him.  And I was so impressed by your books, handful after handful wrapped in white paper to sit pristine on shelves you built yourself.

2.

Georgiana,

You have a knack for transforming spaces, and I think it’s because you’re willing to take the effort to wrap books one by one.  And know titles by shape and size.  And smile in spite of broken chandeliers.  And saw doors in half. 

You have a knack for relating to people, and I think it’s because you appreciate the details, good and bad.  And see in others what they fail to see in themselves.  And bring to conversations abundantly more than I have come to expect.

Georgiana, you have a way with friends!  I can’t think of you with anything other than warm smiles and open arms.  Another old soul, a heart of hearts, little and lovely across the country.