Dear Mike – I had a dream about you last night. A reunion, I think we were at a wedding. We spent the night together chatting and in the morning I said “I have to leave now” and your last sad words to me were: “But you just got here”. I was half way between dream world and waking and thought I should look you up on Facebook. Then reality hit hard. You died in 1985… I remember that awful day when the shocking news was painted on the big rock outside of South Meck. I went digging through obituaries on my back porch hoping it was a sick joke. After my dream this morning I went digging on-line to find anything about you the same way I went digging through the newspapers 25 years ago. You are tremendously hard to find – like you vaporized – like you were only a dream.
But I know that’s not true and I wanted to write you to thank you for our sweet friendship. We met my sophomore year in high school. I transferred from Charlotte Catholic – by the time I arrived everyone knew one another and I was an outsider. Home room was set up alphabetically and for our entire high school career we were together. – Only home room and because of our last names our lockers were almost always side by side. You took me under your wing like I was your little sister and made me feel welcomed and introduced me to your friends.
You always dated the prettiest girls and I was envious that I was never on that list. However our relationship was different. All the pretty girls came and went but we stayed steady friends.
The last time I saw you I was in college. It was our first date – a real date – and we spent the evening together chatting away. A “dream come true” since I had adored you for so many years. We made plans for the next weekend and you never called. Devastated, I regretted that I had become a Pretty Girl. I went home that weekend because I hated being on campus feeling rejected.
I wasn’t in the mood but my mother insisted that I take my brother to practice at South Meck since he couldn’t drive yet. That’s when I saw “In Memory of Mike Dominy” painted on the rock. Stunned I ran over the curb and stopped in front of the words. My brother sitting beside me still and quiet.
I just wanted you to know that 25 years later you still haunt my dreams. You will forever be remembered and hopefully if anyone tries to find you on-line they will find this blog post and know that you existed.
Cara Zara 