15)****

Posted on July 14, 2015 by losingemma

If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” My daughter Emma Katherine Roey lied about a friend being raped and attempting suicide, claimed to have been molested by a priest, and then, just as her attorneys were about to file a law suit, Emma accused her mother (me) of physically abusing her and later of poisoning her with DDT. Emma claimed to have a toxicology report to confirm that her mother (me, again!) poisoned her, but would never turn over this report to my attorney. If you read through the blog, you will find many other examples of Emma’s lying. At one point, she even complained about the way her dad touched her and that he called her a “bitch” and a “slut” everyday. (I refused to listen to her when she talked about her dad like that.) As long as Emma continues with the lies, I will tell her story. Love and thanks to all of you who read and have written to me. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com Please continue to share the blog with others. As of now, Emma’s planning on getting married on Sept. 19, 2015.

Part 18
Oct. 5, 2009 (Emma starts another 7 page letter to “Lacey.”)

Emma tells “Lacey” she had a pretty good weekend. She was supposed to babysit T. on fri, but her mom was too tired to go to the church book club, so Emma went. The group was talking about “blips” in life when something goes wrong and changes your life such as bad marriages, bad parents, divorce, etc. Emma says she likes listening but pretty much kept quiet since she hadn’t read the book and didn’t have enough life experience to comment. We took a break to get food, and them Emma talks about Evan’s mom, Ms. M. saying to her, “Emma, I bet you’re sitting there thinking this is never going to happen to you, and she said it really sharply, but she’s like that to everybody, so Emma doesn’t take it personally. Emma says she was actually think that Annie D’s bracelet was pretty and she’d never seen her wear it to book club before, not that Emma would admit what she was thinking. Emma says she told Ms. M. how she’d been thinking how nice it was to be in a group of ladies and how we all seemed to have a bond even though some of us didn’t know each other that well. Emma says she feels like Ms. M. is attacking her, even though she thinks that is just how she is…

Emma goes on to say that o Saturday, they practiced at church all day long on their skit for the sock hop. Jordan is great at choreographing, so she told everyone what to do. They have a rough plan now, but need a few more rehearsals. Emma says she has a great costume—a cheerleading outfit from the fifties that Aunt Janice made—yes literally sewed every stitch herself—when she was in high school. It fits Emma perfectly. She wore it to church to make an announcement and to just generally draw attention to herself. Then she dragged everyone who was in church (Alex, Rob, Evan) up to the front during announcements to invite everyone to the dance. Evan and Rob were acolyting, so they were already up front….and when they went up for Communion, they were kneeling at the altar and Emma’s dad whispered, “Evan’s staring at you….Emma, look, why is he staring at you…” And Emma said “Daddy, its ok!! Be Quiet!!” As she later pointed out, who wouldn’t be staring at someone in a fifties cheerleading uniform anyway? Daddy’s not that observant, so he believed Emma. Evan always watches Emma, she says, but no one else usually notices, or at any rate, they don’t comment…..and if Daddy notices, he comments.

Ok, she sort of got sidetracked there. Emma says. The talks about finding 4 traffic cones and makes fun of Jordan for telling them to, “Make a circle with these!” and mentions pointing out to Jordan that they made a square, not a circle.
Emma talks about the Blessing of the Animals service and says she doesn’t understand people who aren’t used to animals. The youth group were supposed to be doing a dog wash for a fundraiser, and Emma claimed that Evan was supposed to dry the animals, but just draped a towel around a dog and asked “Is that right?”

Oct. 12, 2009

Emma apologizes for not sending this letter last week and says she will finish it and send it tomorrow, she hopes. She talks about acolyte training, which they had the day before, and the new junior acolytes which she is excited about. The new ones are enthusiastic and clueless so they do whatever Emma tells them very cheerfully. She complains about Fr. T’s son being book bearer, and says she is never going through that again. She complains that Trevor (name changed) is bipolar…..severe bipolar…and she thinks he has a problem with women, particularly as authority figures. He does not and has never liked Emma or Jordan,, and threw a royal fit about getting robed………….So while Emma is dealing with an eighth grader throwing a hissy fit, she’s also trying to get two acolytes who have no clue what they are doing to light candles. And of course, it’s a Baptism, so there are a ton of extra candles, all of which have to be lit in the correct order. Emma doesn’t mind helping a couple of the acolytes who are new and trying their hardest but Trevor is a different story. Emma claims she told an adult that she is never serving with him again. If he won’t accept her as team captain, there is really no point in trying. She is too type-A assertive/aggressive to put up with that, and no one’s going to be happy.

Emma talks about the Peace, when, congregants greet each other and hug or shake hands, and how she was thankful her parents sat on an asile so she go see them without making her way through a row of people who all wanted to talk to her. She was saying goodbye and getting ready to run back up front when she heard her name and of course, she’d know his voice anywhere, even in a room full of talking people. She spun around and was in his arms, not that she minds, but remember this is right besider her parents, so of course they had a field day with that one. Mother was gleeful and daddy was sulky/pouty………… Emma says she is not sure what is going on! She has a list in her head why she thinks he loves her vs. why he doesn’t. the first list goes something like this: he says he loves her. He texts her to ask her questions he already knows the answers to. In church he somehow always ends up sitting where she can see him and he can see her even when that means not sitting with his mom. He watches her all the time and the only time he’s not standing or sitting by her is if her parents are around. She calls to ask him one question which everyone else has answered in 5 seconds and they end up talking for 20 minutes about random, inconsequential, irrelevant stuff. The second list: He hasn’t asked her out. Sometimes he won’t even look at her if her parents are around. She knows his brother hates her (he hates everyone at church, but still) and she has no idea what to make of his mom. And he has no reason to like her anyway!

Soooo, Emma doesn’t know what to think! Oh and after church we went to a brunch at Chateau Elan, which has really good and really expensive food, and listened to talk about stewardship and pledging. Emma claims Ms. M., Evan’s mom, was one table over and she swears that every time she looked up, Ms. M. was staring at her.
Emma goes on to talk about whom we were sitting with at Chateau Elan and how she served at the wedding of a couple there and how Jordan was in love with the son of the husband…………

(I wouldn’t say Emma’s dad was “sulky/pouty” over her and Evan, nor was I gleeful. It was nice to see Emma happy, and since she talked about Evan all the time, like I said earlier, it wasn’t exactly a secret. The whole church saw them together, but most of us were adult enough to know it was young love and didn’t necessarily mean we should expect wedding bells!)

Oct. 15, 2009
Emma talks about going to Wed. night Sunday school and says she thinks it’s cute how Evan starts out on the other side of the room from her, next to Rob, and within five minutes, he comes to get something off a shelf behind Emma and sits down right beside her for the rest of class. She doesn’t know if anyone else notices, but she does, and it makes her happy.

……..in class they were talking about the part of the Gospel where Jesus calls a certain group of people hypocrites, and Ms. Shanna added, “we can see a lot of hupocrites in history…” and knowing that she and Ms. Greeson (the other teacher) agree with Emma, she feels the need to add, “Or prominent political figures.” And that got everyone laughing…….Emma says everyone there, except maybe Molly, know Emma’s opinion of the President.

Emma mentions how she likes both her teachers. They are both young, with young children, and agree with her politically, and they are just really nice. They treat her with respect, and Ms. Shanna informed Trevor that Emma is one of the most mature people she knows and he will treat her as an adult while he is in her class. They have a lot of art materials in the classroom and they are supposed to be doing something while they are talking, but Emma never does, so she just sits. She will never be happy with anything she draws, paints, etc. There is always some detail that bothers her, so she just sits. She wonders what they think about that. Next week she may pick up a piece of paper and just sit there with it. Just to make it look like she is thinking about doing something. Even though she never actually would. She doesn’t want them to think she’s not participating or that she thinks she is too good for it. She actually not good enough to do art. Even stringing beads. Everyone’s made cross necklaces to wear while they’re in the room, but she knows she wouldn’t be happy with the one she made, so she doesn’t make one.

Emma complains, “It’s so hard, “Lacey!’” She is having problems with walls again. She loves him, but she is afraid to love him. It was fine to like him when she thought he didn’t like her, but now that she thinks he loves her, it’s scary. Emma thinks about him all the time and then she wonders if he’s thinking about her. And when he looks at her, her heart flies so fast that she feels like she is going to faint she didn’t used to do that because whether she loved him or not, she never thought anything would come of it. Now she always wonders what he’s thinking and she doesn’t know what to say when he talks to her. She always manages to say something semi-intelligent, but then she thinks of a million other things she should have said. She wishes he would tell her he loves her again. Emma has this irrational hope that maybe something will happen tonight (when setting up for the Sock Hop) or tomorrow at the dance. Her parents will be there tomorrow, but not tonight…although she doesn’t really expect anything to happen. She wishes “Lacey” were there. She wishes she could talk to him. Well, no that’s not true. She wishes he would talk to her, except that when he looks at her he blushes and she can’t meet his eyes for more than a second. She wonders if he notices. He notices more about her than she realizes, she does know that. On Monday he brought up something that she’d said like three years ago that she barely even remembers. Emma doesn’t know whether she’s in love with him or not, although she knows he loves her. And she can’t tell her mom that she’s in love and has been since forever because she’d think Emma was silly.

Emma doesn’t care how sweet Aaron is, he is not allowed to think evil things involving “Lacey!”
“The journey from your mind to your hands/is shorter than you’re thinking…” Slow Fade by Casting Crowns.
Ok, Emma says not to worry she is kidding. Sort of. She doesn’t really know Aaron so shee can’t judge him. If he’s good to “Lacey” then Emma likes him. If he breaks her heart, he’s evil and villainous and she hates him to pieces. “Lacey” will have to print a pic of the two of them together and send it to Emma.
(And No, Emma, I never thought you were silly when you were in love with Evan. It was sweet. Love is love whether you are 15 like you were at the time or whether you are an old 48, like I was and still in love with your dad. Love is love, and it was your first serious crush, and a really big deal for you.

And another Casting Crowns Song you used to like, Emma:

She is running

a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction

She is trying, but the canyon’s ever widening

In the depths of her cold heart

So she sets out on another misadventure just to find

She’s another two years older

and she’s three more steps behind….

Does Anybody Hear Her by Casting Crowns)

Oct. 17 2009
Emma spends the next three pages talking about Evan and the sock hop. The kids put on the skit they’d been working on, and then Evan pulled Emma on to the dance floor and it was a slow dance and there were only two other couple dancing, so of course Emma feels her parents staring at her. Emma says they danced about the next 7 songs and then one of the little boys started hitting Evan with balloons and he said, “Stop. I’m with my girl.” Emma wonders if she is “his girl” then why hasn’t he asked her out………….

One of my favorite pictures from the Sock Hop was I took of Emma dancing with her dad. Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Phill Roey, Phillip Roey

One of my favorite pictures from the Sock Hop was this one I took of Emma dancing with her dad. Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Phill Roey, Phillip Roey

Oct. 19, 2009

Emma talks about the Corn Maze trip and of course lots and lots about Evan…………sitting next to Evan in the car……….usual teenage girl in love kind of stuff……….wishing she could go back to last Friday night. She was so happy then. It was like everything was different that night. Different isn’t the word. She doesn’t even know that there is a word…and normally Evan wouldn’t hold her hand or put his arm around her, but for some reason it was ok and now they are back in the real world and it’s not ok anymore and she wants it to be ok, but she doesn’t know what to do about it………..Her life revolves around when she will see him next. She wants to have a heart-to-heart with him but is afraid to. She thinks about it all the time. She doesn’t know how much longer she can take this. It is stressing her out and she doesn’t focus on school or anything else for long. She wishes she could talk to someone, but there is no one “here” she can trust.

Thanks for listening! Love ya!
Emma-Kate

(Emma was a little paranoid about her parents “staring” at her. It wasn’t a large group, and it wasn’t a large room, but Phill and I tried to give Emma some space. And besides, we really enjoyed watching the adults dance. Phill and i were to totally uncoordinated people, and the only dancing we did was slow dancing in the privacy of our kitchen!

Now, let me see if I can find that Sock Hop video………….)

Letters to “Lacey” Part 17

Posted on July 12, 2015 by losingemma

Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey

Part 17
The following Day Emma starts another letter to “Lacey.”

Sept.29, 2009

Emma asks “Lacey” how she is and talks about the cool morning…
Emma then complains about going to the mall the day before to pick up her portraits, ugh. Tey are ok. She likes a couple of them, but of course it is the ones she doesn’t like that her parents had wallets and stuff printed of. We also went to Bath and Body Works, and Emma says she needs to stay away from that store. She loves all the pretty smells, but has four different ones….

Emma says that when “Lacey” is down at Christmas, they will go to the mall, and goes on to make fun of her mom, telling “Lacey” that her dad called and asked where we were, and her mother said, “Are we upstairs?” and how the cashier was laughing at her. Emma says when you look outside and see a balcony, obviously we are upstairs.

Emma reminds “Lacey” that they were talking about her parents being nosy. That is why she created a yahoo e-mail account. They don’t know about it, so they don’t snoop in it. Every time she uses it, she deletes it from her history so they wonn’t see it. She only e-mails “Lacey” and a few school friends from it, so she doesn’t think it’s that bad. She would never get into anything bad on the internet or give that address to anyone she didn’t know well, so she doesn’t feel too awful about keeping it secret from them. Also, she’s 90% sure they go through her text messages, so she deletes anything she doesn’t want them to see. It’s nothing bad, just what she told “Lacey” the night before. She wouldn’t want her parents to see that. She does have reason not to trust her parents. They are both awful liars. They can’t keep secrets for a minute. They’re just one of the things that could hurt her, so she doesn’t tell.

I love how Emma complains about the portraits (previously posted) we got from JC Penney. We had a coupon for $3/sheet of 8”x10”s, 2 5”x7”s, wallets, whatever. The price was very reasonable. When we looked at the proofs, I picked out the photos I wanted, and I let Emma pick out what she wanted. In addition to what we bought, her dad copied and made prints of them with the computer. Once again, Emma just had to find something to complain about, when she had nothing to complain about. It makes such a better story than saying, “My mom let me pick out the prints I wanted.”

The story about me not knowing if I were upstairs or downstairs at the mall may or may not be true. I am not much of a shopper, and I know there were two Bath and Body Works at the Mall of Georgia, however if we were close enough to the front of the store, I believe I would have figured out that we were upstairs. Emma’s poor, stupid mother.

Emma once complained that her dad and I lied to her, and we got into an argument. I told her that we might not tell her things that we did not feel were appropriate for her to know but we did not deliberately lie to her. She went on and on about how oh yes we did, so I asked her what we lied about. Her answer was, “Santa Claus.” So, sue us, Emma.

Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey

Sept. 30, 2009

Emma complains again about the cold and says she wishes she could have talked to “Lacey” last night. She complains that for two weeks in a row she has absolutely been unable to focus. Sigh. Not good. She was texting “him” last night, and she thinks she has already told “Lacey” that he will randomly start talking in Spanish, and no one can understand him because Emma is the only other one in Spanish and she is only in her first year. Emma says she is going to have to delete her Inbox soon. It is too full ad she doesn’t want to wade through it to decide what to keep.
Emma says she was asking Evan (aka “him”) to talk to anybody in the youth group that goes to Wednesday night Faith Formation about a project. Emma explains that the church moved Sunday school to Wed nights, and she can’t go because she has Forensics meetings and her mom says it is too much in one night. 
“Si mi amor.”
“Yes,, what???? I’m not that far yet.”
“Yes.”
“No I got that part. What is ‘mi amor’”?
“My love.”
“Love you too. I have to go to a meeting though [sic] I will txt you later.” Only, Emma complains, that she didn’t get to talk to him anymore last night because her meeting ran late and she was tired, but then she couldn’t sleep of course, so hopefully today.
Emma wishes she could fast forward to Saturday because the kids were tomeet at the church for skit practice…..

I would just like to point out another lie when Emma says her mother said “it’s too much in one night .” Poor Emma. Being the victim must be so exhausting. Because Emma really didn’t have any friends, and she quit most activities she tried, I took her to any church activity she wanted to go to, especially the youth group (and if Phill was around, he took her as well). The reason Emma could not go that Wed. night was because her Forensics meetings conflicted with her Faith Formation class, not because her mean ol’ mother said it was too much. It was not possible to do both activities, and she had to attend the Forensic meetings because it was a part of her grade, but doesn’t it sound soooo much more interesting to blame her mother for not getting to see “su amor” (her love).

Emma complains about going to the orthodontist and says she can’t wait to get her braces off (sometime next year). She says she is happy now because her mom says she can go to Faith Formation tonight! She is so happy, but of course she didn’t tell her mother why or act overly excited, but she can tell “Lacey” she is happy!  Except her teeth hurt which makes her not happy. Oh well, nothing is perfect. She is kind of nervous too but no one will ever know that except her and maybe him. Why can’t she feel as assured as she acts? If only she was a good enough actress to fool herself, that would really be something… Oooh, she almost doesn’t want to go tonight. He doesn’t think she is going because she didn’t know she was going until this morning. She knows he will be there though. Why does life have to be so darn complicated? And she didn’t tell mother about anything last night, so does she need to tell her before we go? She doesn’t think she is going to. She doesn’t think she will bring it up.

Emma says she is totally messed up. She is happy, but not happy. She is nervous, but excited. This is silly, but for once she doesn’t know how to stop being silly. Of course, she can cover it up with acting, but she can’t hide it from herself. Acting is how she builds her wall. She builds a facade so people think they know her and then she carefully adds to it so they never think to look under it. Sigh. She is going to go. She should look forward to it. Be Happy. Be Happy. Emma needs to be happy and bubbly and everything else she wants people to think she is.

Emma says she is so hyper. She wants to go and she has to wait three whole hours, during which she will be absolutely useless because she is totally not concentrating. Maybe while everyone’s coming in she can slip outside with the little kids and see him without her mom. Assuming we get there first. She will have to try to discreetly get her mom to leave early. Set the clocks ahead? Hmmm, too complicated….

Well, Emma says she was more honest there than she usually is, which she almost regrets She wants to just take out this whole page, but she will not. Because “Lacey” is not going to hurt her and her parents are never going to see this. So there is nothing to be afraid of. Emma tells “Lacey” to let her know what is going on with her!! And Aaron!!
Love ya!!
Emma-Kate

Ahhhh, young love and teen angst all rolled up into one. I don’t remember why we went to Faith Formation that particular night. My guess would be that Emma’s Forensics meeting was cancelled or postponed. I’m also not sure about Emma trying to discretely see Evan without her mom. When we got to the church, I always went and sat with the adults and she went off with the youth. Emma talked about Evan at home all the time at hone, so it’s not like it was a big secret. Everyone at church saw the two of them together frequently, so it wasn’t a secret there either.

Letters to Lacey Part 16, Emma Accuses Johnny Boddie **Completed June 21, 2015*

Posted on June 6, 2015 by losingemma

If you are new to this blog, you may want to read the posts “In a Nutshell” or go to July 2012 and read “Sending out a Letter.” My daughter Emma Katherine Roey lied about a friend being raped and attempting suicide, claimed to have been molested by a priest, and then, just as her attorneys were about to file a law suit, Emma accused her mother (me) of physically abusing her and later of poisoning her with DDT. Emma claimed to have a toxicology report to confirm that her mother (me, again!) poisoned her, but would never turn over this report to my attorney. If you read through the blog, you will find many other examples of Emma’s lying. At one point, she even complained about the way her dad touched her and that he called her a “bitch” and a “slut” everyday. (I refused to listen to her when she talked about her dad like that.) As long as Emma continues with the lies, I will tell her story. Love and thanks to all of you who read and have written to me. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at: losingemma@gmail.com Please continue to share the blog with others.

Part 16 Sept. 21, 2009

Johnny Boddie

Emma starts off this letter telling “Lacey” she is in more messes than she cares to think about at the moment, but of course that blocks out any possibility of finding a solution, so perhaps she’d better think about them… The past two weeks have been creepily coincidental for Emma. She guesses she’d better start at the beginning, since that would make the most sense. It goes back to when she was in Jackson County Comprehensive High School (Jefferson, Ga.), in drama. She didn’t tell “Lacey” about this earlier because Emma had put a “mental block” on it. She knows that’s not healthy, but sometimes it’s easier than facing things. And up until now, Emma sort of thought it was behind her. She says she’s going to explain it quickly, and it may not completely make sense, but she’d rather not edit or revise this. She’d rather not think about it at all, but maybe “Lacey” has some advice that would help.

Emma really loved her drama teacher (Bonnie Roberts), and from day one, two students stood out as the best in the class. (Emma is referring to herself and a young man named Johnny Bodie.) Because they were the best, the two of them were always assigned to work together and the rest of the class enjoyed watching Emma and Johnny. If they were doing groups, Emma claims that everyone wanted to be in the group with Emma and Johnny. Johnny seemed nice, but almost too nice. It was like he was behind something more sinister. She tried to ignore it since, A) Emma has proven herself to be waaay paranoid and b) Emma did not have the tiniest reason to think she was right. Anyway, he was a junior and Emma sort of looked to him to know how to act in a school environment, since she’d never known one before. The two of them were cast as the two leads in the play which was no less than anyone expected. The one-act went off without a hitch, and Emma enjoyed it.

Some of the cast from the Jackson County Comprehensive High Shchool’s production of Metamorphosis with teacher Bonnie Roberts. Emma is 2nd from left. Johnny Boddie is in the front, in the suit. Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey,

Then there was the “showcase,” the final at the end of the year that everyone had to participate in. They were in groups of five and of course, Emma was in Johnny’s group. Rehearsals went normally until final dress. After final, they were supposed to grab their props and head upstairs to the loft until people came in. Emma was half way up when she realized she’d forgotten her notebook and pen (her props) backstage. She could go up and face Mrs. Roberts’ wrath or she could run back and get them with her none the wiser. So, she ran down the stairs, through the curtains, back to the stage. It was nearly dark. She’d forgotten that Johnny would still be there, since he had to rig the curtain before the show, all by himself. Emma claims she put herself in a bad situation, and it was stupid of her to do so. She was so scared she didn’t know what to do. She pushed Johnny away and grabbed her props and ran. She sat on the staircase for a half hour or so, too shaken to go inside. No one missed her as it turned out. Emma says she couldn’t tell anyone. Her parents are prone to overreaction, and she doesn’t mean talking to the school. She means they would probably press criminal charges, and you know that would be all over the school in a heartbeat, so Emma didn’t tell, and she won’t now because it’s all behind her, but it’s just been creepy. First, he was in the paper, and she saw the picture, and then she met a couple of girls from the cast on Saturday, purely by chance. They wanted Emma to come see the show and they mentioned that Johnny had the lead. Emma tells “Lacey” that she can’t go to the play by herself because she would have to pass Johnny in the lobby as she left. She could get some friends to go but a) it would probably be a pretty bad show, and b) her friends life too far away. She wants to go, but just can’t.

AND…….Emma goes on to complain to “Lacey”, her mom wants her to try out for the school play next semester. She can’t. She can’t. She can’t. Emma knows she would get the lead, and he would too. But she can’t tell her mom that that is why she doesn’t want to go.

(I’ve mentioned this story about Johnny Boddie already, but for those of you who haven’t read it, here it is again. I had heard Emma talk about Johnny before I saw him for the first time at school. Most of the time, Emma sounded like she got along with Johnny ok, although I could tell she wasn’t crazy about him. She claimed he was pompous, arrogant, stuck on himself… Emma claimed Johnny was engaged, but later said his girlfriend moved out of state, but he was still engaged although he flirted with any girl around and dated other girls even though he claimed to be engaged. I thought it odd that a high school junior would be “engaged” and questioned Emma about it, wondering if she’d misunderstood something, but she insisted and I let it go. I didn’t really care one way or the other.

When I saw Johnny in the play, he and Emma definitely stood out among the other kids. They both had great, booming voices, and did very well. Some of the kids spoke too softly. Emma’s role was more of a narrator, so Metamorphosis didn’t really show her acting skills, but it was the female lead. Johnny’s acting showed more of a variety of his skills I guess you would say, and he was very good. Emma told me that Johnny had had some community theater experience, and I would have believed it.

In one scene, Johnny wore swim trunks, and he had some sort of sunken area or indention in the middle of his chest. Emma claimed Johnny had been run over as a child, and that’s why his chest was the way it was. I have no idea if this story is true either. As for the whole attempted assault that Emma insinuates in this letter, Emma is lying when she tells “Lacey” that she couldn’t tell anyone. Emma got in the car and COULDN”T WAIT to tell me about it. I believe it was the night of the Showcase, which was a bunch of short skits. I don’t really remember the skits now, but I do remember that all the kids wore black, and they did a great job. I think there were some monologues, some duos, trios, and group skits. It was a lot of fun to watch.

After the show, I waited on Emma in the lobby, and we walked out to the car to head home. I had wanted to take Emma out to dinner or something, but it was already late, and she had school the next day. Emma never functioned well when she was short on sleep, and trying to get her out of bed in the morning would have been a nightmare if I’d kept her out too late. I don’t think we got home until around 10pm, maybe later. We weren’t even out of the school parking lot when Emma started telling me the story about how Johnny had tried to kiss her. Knowing how paranoid Emma could be, I wondered if Johnny had just gotten in Emma’s personal space and maybe she took it the wrong way. Emma explained that she’d forgotten something backstage and when she went back to get it off a shelf or something, Johnny was there and leaned in like he was going to kiss her. She said she slapped him and ran away. I didn’t quite believe the story, and asked Emma a lot of questions. Was she sure he was trying to kiss her? Did he say anything? What was he doing backstage?……… Or was it perhaps a young man who may have had a crush on Emma and tried to steal a kiss? Who knows? Emma insisted that Johnny tried to kiss her and she slapped him. I told her that well, if that’s how it happened, i thought she handled herself pretty well. There was never any threat of pressing criminal charges against Johnny. Emma was fine. She wasn’t raped. She wasn’t upset. The one thing that was a little odd was that Emma begged me not to tell her dad what happened. I told her that her dad would be proud of how she handled the situation, but Emma insisted I not tell Phill. If you’ve read the blog, you know I didn’t keep secrets from Phill, so I did tell him about it, and of course that came back to bite me on the butt when Phill mentioned it after church one day. Emma was FURIOUS with me for having told Phill about Johnny’s attempted assault.

So, just why does Emma tell “Lacey” that she couldn’t tell anyone about Johnny’s attempted kiss? She was dying to tell me about it! As I mentioned earlier, I did attempt to contact Johnny Boddie one time and told him I wanted to ask him some things about Emma. His response did sound rather pompous and arrogant, although a classmate did describe him as arrogant , she also said that the story about the attempted kiss did not sound like Johnny. Johnny claimed to have had minimal contact with Emma and he did not recollect any conversations over topics other than school or the play. He also said something about I should have more respect for Emma’s privacy. All well and good, Johnny Boddie, but had Emma accused you of sexual assault, like she did the priest, I’m sure you would feel a little differently.

Another interesting point is when Emma said she looked to Johnny to know how to act in a school environment because she had never known one before. Huh? Emma was in school for 4 years (grades K-3) and then in a homeschool arts program where she attended classes. Yes, it was a bunch of homeschoolers, but it was in classrooms with teachers and the students had to change classes, etc. It was what I would certainly call a school environment! But I guess Emma needed to sound a little more dramatic.) To Be Continued………..

Sept. 25, 2009

Another fun thing to look forward to, Emma tells “Lacey” is that her mom was on the phone with her friend Sandi (Sandra Brooks McCravy, Sandi McCravy). Actually they are on the phone all the time, but this time it has particularly undesirable consequences. Emma heard them talking about Johnathan (Johnathan McCravy), Sandi’s son, that Emma hadn’t seen in four years. And her mom gets off the phone and says, expecting Emma to be duly thrilled, “Guess What? A new dance school opened up over in Gainesville, and Sandi and I have decided to put you and Johnathan in dance lessons together! You’ll be partners! Isn’t that great?” Oh, yeah. Great For a multitude of reasons: Emma is not coordinated. She hasn’t seen this guy since they were in middle school, and she thinks she is finally actually in her first real relationship (with Evan) but she is in dance lessons with another guy. It’s not fair. And there’s not much she can do about it.

Emma’s mom has also decided that she is missing out on regular high school life. She had no problem homeschooling Emma in middle school, or pulling her out of public high school, but now she’s decided she wants Emma to have a regular school experience. She’s not actually sending her to school, but Jord told Emma she could come to homecoming with her group, and Emma’s mom wanted her to go to that. No way. Shed be alone in a huge group of people she didn’t know while Jordan was flitting around chatting with her enormous group of friends and she would be miserable. So now she’s hoping Evan will ask her to homecoming. And, she doesn’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a dress when she could be saving it for Haiti. She knows her parents would help her, and we’re not exactly struggling like some people are, but money is tight right now.

Emma tells “Lacey” to let her know what is going on with “Lacey” and Aaron. She asks what “Lacey’s” sister thinks and says that maybe if her sister tells her “rents” she likes him it will help? He sounds really sweet, and as long as he treats “Lacey” right, Emma approves.  Emma says to tell him if he breaks her heart, she has a psychopathic pen-pal who will make him sorry he was born. (Just kidding…..maybe…)

Well, at one point Sandi and I did discuss putting the kids in some sort of ballroom class, thinking it would be good for them. Emma often complained she didn’t know how to dance, and Sandi and I thought they might have fun and gain a little confidence in a class. Emma’s eavesdropping skills were off though because it wasn’t in Gainseville. Gainesville would have been a long drive for both of us. The class was in Winder, between Sandi’s home in Lawrenceville and our home in Hoschton. It was something we talked about, but it never came to pass, and the quotes that Emma made up of me telling her they will be partners and “isn’t that great?” is completely fabricated. I just mentioned that we talked about the class and asked Emma is she would like to try it. Sandi and I both thought the kids would like it if there was someone else they knew there.

Emma claims that she hadn’t seen Johnathan in four years. I’m not sure why Emma choose to say that. Sandi had taken the kids out of the homeschool program we were in, so we did not see them every week like we had been, but we still got together now and then. At times, we were both so busy with our kids school and activities that we might talk on the phone several times a week, and only got the kids together a couple of times a year. Four years? I guess if you’re going to exaggerate, go big!

More exaggeration and fabrication; Emma’s friend Jordan did invite her to homecoming with a group of Jordan’s girl friends. Emma loved dressing up, and I thought she might like to go with a group of girls, and just have fun, so I told her if she wanted to go it was fine. I thought it was sweet of Jordan to include Emma, but Emma wasn’t interested. As for money, it wouldn’t have cost Emma anything, because her dad and I would not have expected Emma to buy a dress, etc. We would have taken care of it for her.

Emma also exaggerates the story about me wanting Evan to invite her to his homecoming. Emma had a major crush on Evan and talked about him all the time, but I was not trying to up my daughter’s dating life. I did want to encourage Emma to do things with other kids because all she pretty much did was sit in front of the computer. It just didn’t seem right.

And the psychopathic pen-pal? Kind of prophetic.

Sept 28, 2009

Emma tells Lacey she is sorry she forgot to mail this letter last week. She will finish it and send it today. She hopes. She did a lot of school work and has nothing to really tell until the weekend. Well, actually nothing to tell until Friday after school. That counts as the weekend, right? She got her first Happeneing letter Friday morning (the church retreat that Emma told “Lacey about). Emma and Rob are both on team, and she’s excited. After you’ve been once, you are “on team”. They have a lot of applicants, but Emma and Rob were in the 50 people they chose. Emma was one of the seven people they chose to give a speech, which “Lacey” will of course read and tell Emma what she thinks once Emma writes it…..but she will explain more about it later.

Emma talks about how the youth group was supposed to go on a camping trip to lake Hartwell, but they couldn’t go because of rain, so on Fri. she called everyone because they still needed to work out what music they were using for the Sock Hop. Emma told them to meet at the church and Phill and I were to bring them home for lunch. Emma claimed it’s always fun to call Jordan’s house because with the four kids, the phone is randomly thrown around until it reaches the person you are trying to talk to. Sometimes it takes a few minutes. Eventually she got through to Jordan, though, she probably should have talked to Alex since she is a bit more responsible than her older sister, Lol. Then she talked to Rob’s voicemail, which is all she ever gets because he and Jordan both randomly lose their cell phones, but they’re not at their house, so there’s not home phone to call. Then she called Evan, and they ended up talking for 20 minutes about nothing in particular, although she has no clue how that happens. Evan told Emma he liked her, but he never said anything else about it. Emma doesn’t know what to think! Is he going to ask her out? She thought he was, but now she’s not sure. She has no clue and asks “Lacey” what she thinks.

Saturday came, and the kids met at church, except that somehow Jordan decided it was Friday, even though she wasn’t in school, and was very surprised when Emma called asking where she was. Emma says she couldn’t get through to Rob, but that would be solved later in the afternoon. The kids came to our home, and Emma says that Jordan totally took over, hich was fine with her. She knew exactly what songs she wanted to use, she just needed Emma’s dad to put it together. Emma told Evan before Jordan got there that Jordan knew what she wanted to do, and the rest of them were just there to keep her in check. Emma says she was half joking, but that was pretty much how it went. While Emma’s dad put the medley together, the kids played ping-pong in the garage. They always have fun with that. Jordan brought her iTouch and speakers out there, so she was too distracted with that to play well. Emma served her an easy shot and she closed her eyes and blocked her face with the paddle. The ball bounced off into one of the many impossible places in the garage, so of course Evan’s going, “I can get it!” Yes, Emma says, I realize you could move the si bookshelves and 12 boxes of books and junk we have out there, but it’s just not worth it to get a ping-pong ball. We keep about 12, and when we run out, it’s time to clean the garage. The system works fairly well.

Rob called Emma at least three times, not sure whether he could come or not. Then he called to apologize for not coming. Emma says they tease Rob because he always apologizes for everything multiple times. Jordan loves to tell the story about when they were passing notes in study hall and she wrote, “You apologize too much.” And he wrote back, “I’m sorry.” So they were out playing ping-pong and Alex said, “Emma, you play Rob.” She meant Evan of course, and we all knew it, but Evan starts going, “I’m sorry Emma I’m really sorry…” which about killed them because it was just like Rob.

Ok, totally changing gears, Emma says she just got “Lacey’s” e-mail. First off, she says not to worry about talking too much about Aaron. Emma tells “Lacey” that she loves her and wants to hear everything she has to say. It is a huge first for “Lacey” and Emma says it is totally natural for her to be nervous and to think about him all the time. Emma mentions that they have talked about walls, and how she does the same thing. She is scared to let people in, and “Lacey” is literally the only person she is totally honest with. She is not a pathological liar, but she just doesn’t tell people what she is thinking. She knows “Lacey” does the same thing. It is easier when people think you have no problems and you’re this happy plastic person…

Or are we happy plastic people
Under shiny plastic steeples
With walls around our weakness
And smiles to hide our pain
But if the invitation’s open
To every heart that has been broken
Maybe then we’ll close the curtains
On our stained glass masquerade

Emma tells Lace that that is from by Stained Glass Masquerade Casting Crowns. It just ran through her head as she was writing, and it totally fits. What’s really funny is that “Lacey” said exactly what Emma has said for years. The more she lets people in, the more they can hurt her. That is exactly what Emma has struggled with. To give it a fancy psychologist name, it’s a trust issue. But someday “Lacey” will want to get married, and to do that, she has to trust Aaron. Yes, when he goes to college, he will meet other girls, but that temptation doesn’t disappear when he graduates! Just, hypothetically, let’s fast forward seven years and say they are married; there will be other women where he works other women at church, other women in the grocery store, and for “Lacey” there will be a ton of other men that she will meet and probably several that she will work closely with. They both have to trust each other! But for a relationship to be built on a firm foundation, that trust is not going to come overnight! Emma is glad “Lacey” doesn’t trust him immediately! She shouldn’t. If “Lacey” gives him her heart before he’s ready to take care of it, the chance of “Lacey” getting hurt goes waaay up. But if she date’s him for a year, keeps in contact while he’s in college, she’ll learn to trust him! Don’t worry about him finding another girl in college—there are other girls in high school! If he’s decided she’s the one he likes, then she has a ton of respect for him based purely on that. “Lacey” is sweet, smart, and classy. And that’s not going to change just because they don’t go to the same school anymore.

Emma says that “Lacey asks basically why she should give him a chance to break her heart? Emma struggles with the same thing, but whenever you start dating, you will have to eventually give someone the chance to do that. Emma wishes she could remember where she ready what she is about to say because she knows it was more eloquently phrased, but here it is: Your first love is taking a chance. You are letting someone else control whether you have to [sic] happiest time of your life or the most painful heartbreak. But that was from a secular perspective, so let Emma add a bit to it. God wants to save you from the most painful kind of heartbreak. Emma is not saying for a minute that “Lacey” would ever consider breaking the 7th commandment (thou shalt not commit adultery), Emma is just saying that if she did, losing him would hurt a hundred times worse. While Emma and “Lacey” may (and probably will) love and lose, they will never lose as badly as they would if they didn’t have God in their lives. And He will be by them every step of the way.

As far as for “Lacey” being nervous to talk to Aaron, Emma says that if he’s that understanding, he’s better than 95% of the guys out there, but “Lacey” will have to giver herself time to get used to this, and Emma promises it will get easier. “Lacey” will still love him, but she will get to the point where she’s not so nervous talking to him. And as for thinking of things she should have said, we all do that! Emma guarantees that every girl “Lacey” meets has been through the same thing. She’s surprised she can do so well texting, but if she can, good for her! And the more she texts, the more comfortable she will eventually be talking to him.

Emma talks about school and asks “Lacey” about a beach trip she took, and then gets back to walls, telling “Lacey” another thing about the walls: she thinks it’s easier for “Lacey” and Emma to talk because they aren’t talking face to face. Emma knows she could never tell “Lacey” everything she does if they were because it’s so hard to talk, but on paper, she can think until she knows what to say and then revise it until it makes sense. Texting is almost the same, but in face-to-face situations it’s really hard to know what to do, and Emma always wishes there was a backspace key.

Emma says she hopes she was some help and that she is more or less going through the same thing, so she doesn’t really have any experience to base her advice on. It’s just what she has read and what she’s learned watching other people. She tells “Lacey” to keep her updated and she won’t get tired of hearing it, and talking to each other helps both of them, and then signs off: Love ya!! Emma-Kate.

The ping-pong ball story is another silly exaggeration, and not quite the truth.

I find it interesting that Emma claims not to be a pathological liar, as well as how much advice Emma can give on relationships when, at that point, she’d never even been on a date. Interesting too that Emma is so interested in the 7th commandment, but doesn’t have any trouble breaking a few others.

Mother’s Day Update on Emma (Edited 5/12/15)

Posted on May 9, 2015 by losingemma

When Emma was about 3, we got our first guinea pig, whom Emma named Milkbone, from the Atlanta Humane Society. She was a great little pig, and lived 5 1/2 years. Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey

Emma Getting Married Again ?

And Happy Mother’s Day!

Several people have asked me about Emma, so I will share a few things I’ve heard. I’ve been thinking about Mother’s Day lately, listening to friends making plans and such, and I wanted to send Emma a Mother’s Day message, but of course, I won’t send Emma anything privately because she would try to get a restraining order against me. Emma can contact me, but I cannot contact her. The rules according to Emma.
The last I heard, when Emma’s boyfriend in Ohio sent her packing, choosing his family over his girlfriend and the havoc she was creating for his family, Emma went home, moving back in with her dad and got a dog. She is majoring in counseling, so I assume she will be working on a Master’s Degree.
Emma blocked me from her facebook back in 2011, and she later changed her name on Facebook to Katie Smith. Sometime after that, she created another “Emma Roey” on Facebook, but did not block me from that one, so I keep seeing her name in the “People You May Know” section. I am assuming Emma wanted me to see this and she created this “Emma Roey” who lives in Seattle, so that people could find her easily and she could redirect them to her Katie Smith Facebook. I thought it was kind of funny for someone who has nothing to hide, don’t you think? You can block anyone from your facebook, so why would you need another identity? Maybe Emma’s hoping I will send her a friend request so she can work on that restraining order.

The new Emma Roey Facebook is very private, just saying that she lives in Seattle, worked at Ferrero Rocher (Yum!), Studied at the University of Washington, and her likes include such Christian sites as Focus on the Family, God is Good, Jesus Daily, Mike and Ike, Jewelure, Berricle (more jewelry) and Oreo.

Focus on the Family (Kind of Ironic, don’t you think?)

Jesus Daily

Emma always put a lot of pressure on herself with all the things she heard people say about being an only child, being homeschooled, being a Christian. Unfortunately, Emma lived up to all the negative stereotypes of all three of these. At one time, I thought she would set an example and clear up some of these stereotypes of how only children spoiled, selfish, etc., and how homeschoolers are weird and unsocialized, and Christians are hypocrites and better than everyone. I think Emma has also let a lot of children down who truly were sexually molested and abused. People that Know Emma’s story begin to doubt other stories they hear. Other victims will hear Emma’s story and be afraid to speak up because they will feel like if kids like Emma lied about being molested, who is going to believe their own story.

I heard that Emma will be leaving town again, which is no surprise. The longer Emma stays in one place, the more likely she’s liable to get caught in her lies.

Someone recently sent me a link to a page where one Emma Roey is getting married to a Jackson Miller in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Sept 19th 2015, exactly 3 months before Emma’s 22nd birthday. Whether this is my Emma Roey or some other Emma Roey, I have no idea. Whether Jackson Miller is a real person, or someone Emma made up so that she could have another fiancé. I probably shouldn’t be expecting an invitation. Perhaps Emma wanted people to think she is engaged again, I have no idea about that either. I was telling a friend about seeing the wedding announcement on a site called The Knot, and I told her that I’m not even sad for me. Yes, at one time, I was devastated utterly heartbroken about losing my husband and my daughter, but when I hear some of the things I’ve heard about Emma, I’m just sad———for her. I feel like Emma’s life is like watching that train wreck in slow motion. Emma will never have a normal life. I’m not sure even if she got “real” help she could have a normal life. Yes, she may get married one day, but it won’t last. It’s just sad to me to know what a disaster my daughter’s life is headed for. Emma can have a big, beautiful wedding, but slowly the ugly will seep back out. It can’t hide forever. Emma tries to make everything appear normal, but as another professional pointed out to me that Emma does exactly what mentally ill people do. She knows there’s something wrong, but she doesn’t want people to think it is with her, so she turns the tables on other people. This person was explaining to me how Emma felt trapped and cornered, so she had to turn on me a few years ago. Something about how mentally ill people have to get the focus off of themselves.

Since my divorce, I’ve had a lot of adventures that I wished I could share with Emma. Things I’ve wished I could tell her about. At one time, Emma and I could talk and talk and talk, but now I am everything that is wrong with her life. She needs someone to blame. Of course, the Emma I remember is not the Emma of now, and in fact never was the Emma I thought I knew.

I appreciate those who’ve asked how I am doing. I’m actually doing pretty well. I like my work, and people seem to like me. It’s funny to go from a very introverted wife and mom back into the working world. I laugh about something that happens at work and wish I could share it with Emma, but I can’t. I even thought how Emma would think I was a cool mom, rather than that boring stay-at-home mother she knew.
Recently, I took a class on line for the first time. I hated it, and I could understand why Emma spent all her time, when she was in school on line, instant messaging and writing letters instead of doing her school work. I could understand why she failed her Physics class. On line classes can be really boring!! Also, not being particularly tech savy, when I started the class, I was wishing Emma was around to help me navigate the on line class, but I managed to get through it.

The other day at work, I met someone who was talking about driving up north to help her granddaughter drive down with two little ones. I told her that I never would have been brave enough to make a drive like that alone with two little ones, so I thought it was great that she was going up to help make the trip. We got to talking, and I told her about when Emma was about 2, maybe 2 ½ and we were driving to New Jersey. We’d taught Emma the song, “You are my Sunshine” and we sang it a lot that trip. Phill was never one to stop and spend the night, so we would drive from Georgia to New Jersey in about 18 hours or so. Poor Emma was so fed up with sitting in the car seat that we started singing, trying to distract her, and Emma banged her little fists on the car seat and changed the words to:
You are NOT my sunshine
My NOT only sunshine
You make me NOT happy
When skies are grey
You’ll never know dear
How much I NOT love you
Please don’t NOT take my sunshine away…
It was so cute, but Emma was NOT a happy camper on that long car ride!

People ask me about Emma, and you can almost see it in their eyes, “Thank God it’s not my child.” Because I work with the public, I’ve met many people who’ve been through similar things with their own children. Sometimes things work out, and sometimes they don’t. I’ve heard some stories similar to my own, and I’ve heard worse. I knew Emma wasn’t mine to keep, my job was to raise her and hopefully turn her into an responsible adult. What Happened? I don’t know. I just have to repeat something another parent told me. “We didn’t raise her that way.” I thought Phill and I had done a pretty good job raising Emma until the poop hit the proverbial fan. I remember so many times when she was about 16 thinking that we were almost there. I know high school is a difficult age, but if we could just get her to college, I knew she would love college and do well. Emma, with her high IQ, could do anything she set her mind to. For years, she wanted to be a pediatrician, and I thought she would make a great one. The thought of Emma being a counselor scares me, and I can’t tell you the number of people who know Emma who have voiced their fears about this. A psychologist told me that with what Emma did to her mother, this would definitely be the wrong career for her because of her lack of empathy. No doubt, Emma will be able to charm her way along for a while. I am just praying she doesn’t damage any other families in her career. Of course, I pray every day for Emma. I’ve accepted that I may never see her again in this lifetime. I hope she gets the help she needs, but all that is out of my control now, so all I can do is pray for Emma.

Well, Happy Mother’s Day Emma. You are always in my heart no matter where you roam. I’m sure Daddy is up at Joe Nall this weekend, so I’m guessing you either went with him or are at home. You’ve probably made plans to spend with your “other mommy” Sandra Brooks McCravy for Mother’s day. Have fun!

And thanks to my readers! I will get back to posting Emma’s Letters to “Lacey” as soon as I can. I’ve been very busy lately, but something that has been taking up a lot of my time is coming to an end soon, so I will have a little more time soon. And thank you for bearing with my errors and typos. I’m usually rushing to write, and I know I need to edit better, but for now, I’m just trying to get my thoughts down when I have a little time!

Letters to “Lacey” Part 14

Posted on April 22, 2015 by losingemma

(There is a large gap between Emma’s letters from June to September. I do not know if Emma was hand writing instead of e-mail. At some point, the girls began texting a lot and quit writing, but that may have been later. Over the summer of 2009, Emma went on a mission trip with Eternal Hope of Haiti. I don’t remember how many were on the trip, but it was a small group: the director (a Nurse Practitioner) and her husband who lived in our neighborhood, another NP who was a neighbor, two college aged girls named Brandi, who I think was a medical assistant, and Leah Jung, a future medical student at Emory University. Emma roomed with Brandi and Leah, and while she liked Leah, she had nothing nice to say about Brandi. That summer, Emma also went with her church youth group to Cherokee, N.C., and Phill went along as a chaperone. On the last day, my sister had come down from CT., so we drove up to Cherokee for the events, and a friend from church rode with us.)

Emma (front and center) and some of the kids from her church youth group. Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey

Emma (front and center) and some of the kids from her church youth group, as well as Phill, and Ms. Karen (green sweater) who was the youth group leader. Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey

Sept 7, 2009

Emma says hello from her lonely house sitting self. Emma says she is probably going home today and that she did get out yesterday (Sunday) so that was nice. Emma talks about church and how Jordan was serving, and after she’d disrobed she joined Emma downstairs in the parish hall with the distraught announcement, “That cute guy I was watching during the sermon is gone!” Emma says she tries to listen to the sermon, but Jordan fantasizes about guys that don’t know she exists. Sigh. She can’t change her but has to love her for what she is… “That guy” says Emma is actually Loydon, the little brother of a girl who graduated the previous year. Emma says she doesn’t know anything about him and neither does Jordan, but that doesn’t stop her from deciding she’s in love with him.

Sunday afternoon, Emma went over to Jordan’s house, since she did not live far from where Emma was housesitting. Emma says it was that or have her mom come get her for the youth group meeting and then have to stay through it. Emma doesn’t like it when her “rents” come because it’s the one bit of time she has without them hovering over her. Plus she enjoys hanging out with Jordan…sometimes. “I mean I love her, but she worries me.” Says Emma about Jordan. Also being with Jord for the afternoon gives Jordan time to formulate her scheme for Emma’s life so she was really glad that Evan was not there that night. Emma says Jordan’s current genius plan is to tell Evan to ask Emma out and for Emma to tell Loydon to ask Jordan out. Apparently, Emma is not to say, “Hi, you’ve never seen me before, but my best friend that you don’t even know exists wants you to ask her out.” That is not a conversation Emma is willing to have. She has told Jordan a million times that she’s not allowed to advise Emma or Evan about what to do with their lives, but somehow that hasn’t sunk in yet. Case in point, Emma walks out of the bathroom to see Jordan facing away from her, bent over something. Jordan’s little brother Kyle walks over to Emma and says, “I don’t know what you’re doing. But I’m pretty sure you’re in trouble. She went through your purse.” That is all Emma needs to know, that is how well Emma knows Jordan. Emma goes to Jordan and tells her to give her her cell phone. Now. She says that she can see her fingers and she knows where the send button is and that if Jordan touches it, her Itouch will magically disappear. Jordan snaps the phone closed and hands it back to Emma. Emma says that Jordan doesn’t know it, but Emma’s phone saves all unsent text messages in a Drafts folder, so she wasn’t surprised (but you should have seen Jordan’s face!) when her phone’s automated voice announced sweetly, “You have an unsent message to…….Evan………..Br……would you like to send it now?” “Hmmmm,” Emma says she doesn’t remember texting Evan. Let’s see what the message says, Jordan. Come here, don’t you want to see? It’s a mystery………

…Emma tells Jordan she needs to work on her impersonating skills, dear. Jordan wrote “ily” and Emma doesn’t type like that, she types things out. Emma says it is easier to make a joke that to blow up at Jordan although she does deserve it. Jordan says, “Ok! Fix it and send it.” But Emma tells her she is not silly enough to think she would do that. Give it up Jordan. Not going to work. Nice try.

Emma said they had the girls at the youth group, Emma, Jordan, Alex, and Ari, and ended up messing around and playing Apples to Apples. Jordan kept getting cards and complaining she didn’t know who the people were. She would show Emma her hand, so Emma would try to help with the fairly obvious ones. “Eleanor Roosevelt. Think Jord. Doesn’t Roosevelt sound familiar?” “Oooh, I know! There was the tv show about the black guy!” At this poing Ms. Karen and Ms. Shanna (the youth group leaders) are sitting there as so many people do, silently blaming Emma for Jordan’s general Jordan-ness.“

Later, Emma got a card she couldn’t resist teasing Jordan with. The card said, “Prince Charming”, but of course it had to backfire when Ms. Karen said, “No, but you do.” (Referring to Emma’s prince—Evan.) So Emma replied innocently, “How would I know who Jordan’s prince charming is?” And to make things even better, Emma complains, her mom has to give her advice on the whole situation. She actually wants to go along with Jordan, can you believe that??? This past year she’s gone from being psycho-overprotective-my-daughter-can’t-date-til-she’s-thirty-mom to being Emma-and-Evan-are-getting-married-isn’t-this-great-mom. Emma says she doesn’t know which mom she prefers as they both drive her crazy, and her dad continues to stick to his one request, “I don’t care what you do, but please don’t get pregnant.” So, in a nutshell, Emma says she has no one sane to talk to at home. She is hoping “Lacey” can come visit at Christmas break. Sheesh. Sometimes she thinks she will write a soap opera based on her life!

(Well, I did enjoy seeing Emma have a little bit of a social life and a little fun, but no, I wasn’t doing any wedding planning, and she never told me about Jordan’s plan, so I didn’t give her any advice on that one. And no, “Lacey” never came to visit.)

Emma mentions talking to Evan on the phone the night before. She says that is the irony: that Jordan takes one look at a guy and decides she loves him and he loves her back and that is all there is to it. Emma has known Evan for years and despite what everyone else says and thinks, she doesn’t know whether to think he likes her or not…or what it means if he does. High School: the best years of your life. Ha. They’re also the most painful, the most complicated, the hardest…all Emma can think about is that it would be her worst nightmare if she and Evan started dating and ended up like Jordan and Rob after they broke up. Emma doesn’t think she is mature enough for a “good” break up. She cries when flower wilt. She cries at midnight in her room when no one can hear her, but still. Anyway, thanks for listening, Emma says, and being sympathetic to her totally melodramatic life. Love ya!! Write Soon! Emma-Kate

Letters to “Lacey” Part 13: The Great Iris Folding Escapade!

Posted on April 15, 2015 by losingemma

Emma watches tv with one of our dogs and a foster dog. Emma Kate Roey, Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey

May 31, 2009 Four days after the last letter, Emma starts another. She tells “Lacey” that she didn’t have time to write yesterday. She volunteered at PetsMart and then went to church. She says she ran into C. (the neighbor girl Emma accused of drug use, being promiscuous, and of having an abortion and possibly a 2nd pregnancy) and C. really ticked Emma off. Emma knew they were having a party at K’s house (a couple of houses down from our home one Buck Trail in Hoschton) and there was no way Emma was going because she was sure that illegal things were going on, and she didn’t want to hear them and deal with the pressure and backstabbing. Emma says she knows she could resist temptation if she wanted to, but she hates, but is no supposed to because that’s not Christian. She does not like those girls at all, so it’s not worth bothering. C. wanted to know why Emma couldn’t come to the party, so Emma said she was going to do some things with our church to get ready for an event tomorrow, and C. said, “Oh, I’m sorry.” In a really snobby tone. Emma says she told C. off and that she is so tired of C. making fun of her religion and of “Jesus Freaks.” One of their favorite saying sis “I’m ok with Jesus, I just hate his fan club.” That totally gets Emma because her faith is a huge part of her life, and the girls are rubbing their disapproval in her face. That is totally inappropriate, Emma complains! Emma says this is just one of the many things that proves C. is not the person she thinks she is. Emma says that C. claims to be nonjudgmental. Emma says she honestly just wishes she’d never met C. in the first place and that for some weird reason, C. thinks she is Emma’s best friend. This is not true because Emma doesn’t trust her and never will!

Emma goes on to talk about going to the church to help set up for the Spaghetti Lunch, and then talks about church the next day and then the Spaghetti lunch that followed. Emma was annoyed because a lot of people did not attend the lunch and because they were shorthanded. Emma goes on to say she was talking to Evan (one of the members of the youth group) about pianos and how Evan told her his piano was from the 1880s and was a family heirloom. Emma said she then asked me( her mother) how old our piano was and said that I told her I bought it at a yard sale and complains that I keep saying that when she gets better we would get a new one—“ya, like when I’m in Florida in college….” She complains that there is no rich history to our piano and about the piano being a piece of junk.

(Ok, I have not checked into the story of Evan’s “heirloom” piano. What is it with Emma and “heirlooms?” I sort of doubt this story is true from what I know of Evan’s family, BUT our piano did not come from yard sale. It was an old piano given to me by a friend who no longer wanted it. Yes, it was a piece of junk, and yes it was just fine for Emma to learn on. Emma started piano in kindergarten, but after a few years of lessons, it was such a battle to get her to practice, so we quit. I think it was the summer before she started high school that she started again. Emma was never very serious about piano. She enjoyed the attention she got when she could play church hymms, songs from Phamtom of the Opera and Les Miserables, but she was never a serious music student. It was never my desire to turn her into a musician, but just to maybe give her a little appreciation for music. Had she been serious about it, Phill and I would have definitely encouraged her, but she really liked to play around and have fun, and that was fine too. I’ve been around enough to know that you can’t push kids in to music. I’d seen what Sandra Brooks McCravy went through with her boys. Her parents were very generous to pay for expensive piano lessons, and Derek was very serious about piano, but Johnathan wasn’t. Johnathan played because he was forced to, and eventually he quit and took guitar lessons. Derek played beautiful classical piano and even won a couple hundred dollars in a small scholarship competition. )

Emma complains about cleaning up after the spaghetti lunch that she and one of the younger girls were taking down decorations while some of the other kids (Rob, Nick, Jordan Ari) sat around talking and how she had to go over and tell them that they needed to help. Emma said it’s like she doesn’t want to be seen as controlling…..but the least they can do is help, and how her feet were killing her too, but she did what needed to be done anyway! Emma tells “Lacey” that she was also depressed that Jordan had a party and Ari and Rob were there, but she was not invited, and her mom immediately says, “Did you feel left out?” Emma says it made her realize that in all the times they’ve been friends, “upwards of a decade”, Jordan has never once invited Emma anywhere with her. Emma has had her over and done things with her, but she has never reciprocated. Emma considers Jordan a friend, but does not think Jordan thinks the same about her. In fact, she doesn’t. Emma knows and has known this for a wile, but this was just a blatant slap in the face to tell her this is the way things are and she needs to accept them. So that is her depression in a nutshell.

(Well, I don’t remember what I said, but I know I would have not said, “Do you feel left out?” upon finding my daughter was not invited to a party. I don’t practice that feely-mealy kind of speech. I probably said, “I’m sorry.” I really don’t remember at this point, although I do remember Emma telling me that Jordan had a party and she was not invited. Also, at that point, I think we’d known Jordan’s family for about 5 or so years, not upwards of a decade. I don’t remember exactly, but I think we joined the church when Emma was in 2nd grade. Jordan and her family came some time after we did and then left the church for a couple of years and then returned.)

June 2, 2009

Emma talks about us going to see the movie up with some passes our neighbors gave us for Christmas, and says it is a big deal for us because we only go to a movie maybe once a year, and the only reason we were going was because the were going to expire.

(I don’t recall if the passes were going to expire or not. I’ve received several movie passes as gifts, and I’ve never had any that had expiration dates on them, so this could be a fabrication, but it’s true that we didn’t go to movies very often. We preferred to wait until movies came out on video and we watched them at home.)

Emma tells “Lacey” about delivering flyer in the neighborhood for her pet sitting service.

(Emma had a homeschool assignment to make a flyer, so I suggested pet sitting since that was something she could do to earn some money. She did a great job and earned over $300 just before she went on the mission trip with Eternal Hope of Haiti.)

Emma says that the song, “After the World” by Disciple is stuck in her head right now…

You break the glass

Try to hide your face Recorded lines

That just will not erase

And buried in Your loss of innocence

You wonder if You’ll find it again

Emma says she doen’t even have a particular meaning or connection to this one, it just keeps playing through her head with no signs of impending relief. Oh well, it’s not nearly as bad as some of the stuff Jordan’s had stuck in her head….it’s like a reflex, comparing herself to Jordan. She can’t help it. So many memories….ok, trying not to get depressed…totally not working….*sigh*. Emma says she doesn’t know where she would be without “Lacey”. Jordan is gone and kayla is in Toccoa or France (and totally inaccessible regardless). Facebook is normally an encouragement, but she’s looking at her profile and “Emma has 42 friends”, oh ya right. Emma talks about receiving a friend request from a boy she knew when she attended George Walton Academy in Monroe, Ga. She remembers how in kindergarten, he was that boy Ms. McPheeters could never wake up from rest time. Emma talks about her fish Zorro and says she worries that her parents might let him starve while she is gone. She says everyone would think she was crazy or she’d beg to bring him on the mission trip with the youth group, but she doubts the youth group leader would go for that. Poor Fishie.

(Phill and I always took pretty good care of our pets, so I think this “Poor Fishie” is just idle chatter. Emma needed something to say. I can’t imagine Emma actually believed we would not take care of her fish while she was gone. As any parent knows, when a child has a pet, it’s the parents who are the ones to care for it.) ############################################################################################################################################################ Now for one of my favorite parts:

The iris folding card Emma and I made. Apparently, I did pretty good for a crippled old arthritic mother! Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey

The iris folding cards Emma and I made. Apparently, I did pretty good for a crippled old arthritic mother! Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey

Emma talks about teaching her mom iris folding like she used on the card she’d recently sent to “Lacey”. Emma says she loves her mom, but it is sooooo hard to teach her because she has arthritis in her hands and is sooo slow. It’s like she could do this ten times faster and not waste half the material she does, but it’s really important for her to do it herself. And on top of that, she gets angry when Emma tries to keep her from making mistakes. She wants to do it her way, but she will get really frustrated when hers don’t turn out as nicely as Emma’s do because she refuses to take Emma’s advice , which she gives in a very respectful tone that still get labeled “smart-a**”). It gets Emma so frustrated because it’s not even fun for her anymore, and what’s worse is when her mother wants to help with Emma’s projects, but she invariabley ruins them!! So Emma tries to work on things when she’s not home.

(I have to admit, when I first read this story about the iris folding, I was very hurt. Here it is a few years down the road and it’s no longer painful, but it’s funny in a pathetic sort of way. An imaginary twist of events from a sick mind. A few years before, I’d taken Emma to Michael’s on a Saturday for one of their $2 kid’s projects. They were doing Iris folding cards, and Emma made one. I think it was a Thanksgiving turkey if I remember correctly. She really enjoyed it, so later on we got her supplies and she started making these cards. She really enjoyed it and we bought more and more supplies for her. She had a ton of card making supplies. For those of you who may not know what Iris Folding is, it is simply folding strips of paper and laying them down, overlapping. It is quite simple to do. I always enjoyed seeing what Emma made, and said one day I’d like to try it with her. Emma was anxious to teach me, so when my niece was expecting her 2nd baby, and we found out it was a boy, we decided to sit down and make some cards. Emma wanted to make a baby boy card, and I just wanted to give it a try. I’d taught Emma so many things over the years, especially with my beadwork, she seemed to really enjoy teaching me her hobby. We had a lovely afternoon sitting, chatting, and working on our cards. It is still a sweet memory of some mother-daughter time. Funny how my memories of that day differ so widely from Emma’s, but then I’m the one Emma accuses of “blocking things out.” Uh, ok. I also find it pathetic that Emma that Emma claims I wanted to help her with her projects. Of course, since we homeschooled, I had to be in charge of school, but once we were done with that, Emma was on her own with her little arts and crafts. If she asked me for help, I certainly would, but as a homeschooling mom who spent at least 40 hours a week on school and then add to that cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, yardwork, church activities, my part time job, taking care of the dogs, volunteering with the rescue…… I certainly wasn’t interested in taking over Emma’s little projects. It sure makes a good story though, doesn’t it. St. Emma has the patience of Job taking the time to teach her poor crippled mother how to fold paper! Oh, and did I mention I do not have arthritis in my hands? Funny how Emma doesn’t let the little details get in the way of her stories. In full disclosure, I do have osteoarthritis in on shoulder due to a repetitive motion injury, but other than that, no arthritis anywhere.) ##################################################################################################################################################################################################################### ################################################################################################################################################################################################################################### Emma tells “Lacey” about getting her HepA shot for going to Haiti, and then complains about seeing a little boy down the street who noticed her bandaid and asked what color lollipop she got for her shot. Emma says she feels so ripped off for getting painful foreign toxins injected into her body and she doesn’t even get a piece of candy! Sooo not fair! Emma signs off saying this letter is kind of short.

And just a personal note for Emma: I hope you and Daddy have a wonderful time at SEFF! Looks like the rain should clear up enough for the event! In telling the story about the iris folding, I got to thinking ab out when we were homeschooling and how I would keep some beadwork on the porch to work on because I couldn’t leave you alone to do your schoolwork. You sat out there and read books if I left the room. Remember when you cut the little purple amulet bag I was making? You denied and denied it, but I knew you did it. It was a perfect little scissor cut, and you and I were the only ones home. You were mad a me over something so you destroyed my project. Funny how you accused ME of taking over YOUR projects! Also, I was thinking about the time our friends who were down at the Holland School came by to visit, and one of them bought A $30 bead from me and I tucked the money under my desk blotter like it always did with money, checks, or important papers. Then the money disappeared, and you denied taking it. I know you did it Emma. I just didn’t know what to do when you denied, denied, denied, so I let it go. Love you sweetie, have a good time in Americus!

Letters to “Lacey” Part 12

Posted on April 5, 2015 by losingemma

While Phill did 95% of the work, Emma did choose the colors she wanted for her room

After Emma’s room was painted, Phill put together the bed/desk that Emma had chosen from Ikea. Emma Roey . Emma Katherine Roey. Emma Kate Roey.

This picture of Rob, one of the kids from Emma’s youth group, shows the curtains Emma chose for her room. Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey

May 20, 2009

(Three days later Emma starts another letter. The first paragraph is about how she finished The Secret Lives of Bees and she repeats a discussion we had at book club.)

Emma states that “Lacey” implied that she was bored without school to keep her occupied, so Emma made a list of suggestions with the one that trumps the rest, according to Emma, is that she could babysit, T., the little girl Emma babysat for. Emma says to just say the word, and Emma will send her there for the summer. Her mom would be THRILLED for “Lacey” to babysit as long as she could survive and Emma promises that she would never be bored.

Emma goes on to say she compiled a list of more viable suggestions: “Lacey” can volunteer to cook every meal for her family. She can teach herself how to knit and then make Emma a sweater. She can memorize the Bible. (The whole thing, not just parts of it.) She can illustrate her favorite verses. She can try to communicate telepathically with an animal, family member, or inanimate object. She can take lots of pictures. She can write letters, poems, and stories. She can cut up paper into little pieces. (Emma says this can amuse some of her little friends for hours.) She can ask Emma to forward Jordan’s texts to her and see if she can translate them into English. (They are even more challenging than those monster Sudoku puzzles that Emma tried and gave up after 5 minutes.) There’s another one, “Lacey” can try Sodoku. She can take things apart and try to put them back together. (Starting with the computer is not recommended because her “rents” will not be happy if she fails at the putting-it-back-together part.) Try to draw something. (Emma states she does not have the attention span and totally lacks skill for art.) “Lacey” can call Emma’s friend Erika, and let her talk to “Lacey.” She can take one shoe (not a pair) out of someone’s closet once a day every day and see how long it takes them to figure out something’s going on. She can put food colors in leftovers (green works well). She can change the background on the family computer. She can sew sequins around the neckline of a plain shirt which Emma says she does have the patience for, and besides it looks pretty! Go to any store and get a shopping cart full of stuff and try to unload it into other people’s carts without them noticing. Color code a family member’s closet. Get a bendy pencil. Label everything “Lacey” can think of including food, furniture, and people. Let little kids color her feet and hands in washable markers……………

(And yes, Emma definitely knows about the food coloring! Once, after I cooked some squash, Emma put green food coloring in the leftovers so that I would think it went bad and she wouldn’t have to eat it again! Even though I knew I’d made the squash the day or two before, I didn’t feel comfortable eating it. I kept asking Emma if she put food coloring in it and she denied, denied, denied, so she won that one, and I threw it away. It was some time later that Emma did admit she put food coloring in the squash.)

Emma says mentioning the washable markers reminds her of something she hasn’t told “Lacey” about. She was helping with VBS and Jordan’s mom told her to help her with the tie-dye project, and it did not occur to Emma to wear gloves, so her hands were bright red, blue, and yellow for weeks before they even began to fade. It had to be a full three months before the stains were completely gone.

(This is another example of a little exaggeration, or maybe a lot. Emma came home with a little dye on her hands, just splotches. It washed out after some hand washing and a few showers, so her hands were NOT brightly colored for weeks.)

Emma tells Lacey about her grandmother (Harriett Roey, Phill’s mom) sending her a newspaper clipping about people dying trying to escape from Haiti, and mentions how her grandmother thought she would support Emma’s endeavor of going on a mission trip by sending her depressing news stories.
Emma has just gotten her passport and travel itinerary and tells Lacey she will be leaving with Eternal Hope of Haiti at 3am on Wed. June 17th, fly to Ft. Lauderdale, and then on to Port-au-Prince where the group will take a puddle-jumper to the mission site. Emma says it is really hitting home that she is going to a third world country with 6 people, 5 of whom she has never met, traveling internationally and by herself for the first time. She needs some serious prayers!

(Odd that Emma claims to only know 5 of 6 people, as both the Nurse Practitioners, and the husband of the director of Eternal Hope went on the trip. One of these ladies was the neighbor that Emma later claimed was drunk when she went over to get instructions on pet sitting for her.)

Emma talks about doing some closet cleaning, and then about getting her new swim suit that she loves, stating that it is modest as far as swimsuits go. (See picture in earlier post.)

Emma asks “Lacey” what she is doing about school the next year. She knew “Lacey” wasn’t returning to Georgia Virtual School (GAVS), and she thought she might be going to public school, and if she is, how does she feel about it? Emma says he prays that it won’t be the H*** for “Lacey” that it was for Emma, if she must endure it at all. Emma tells “Lacey” not to ride the bus if at all possible and to let her know if she is going because she has a lot more survival tips she can give “Lacey.” (No joke. Emma thinks there should be a transition course.)

Emma says she may be staying in GAVS the next year, but we aren’t sure. She is not sure how she feels. Math online is difficult, but she will get through it. She sort of would like to try a hybrid school like Heritage Academy, and she applied there last year, but we were turned down because the branch where we lived was very Baptist. She says she understands they are not all like that, but this one was, and she was pretty upset at the time.
(Our friend Sandi’s sons, Derek McCravy and Johnathan McCravy both went to a Heritage Academy.)

May 21, 2009

Emma starts out complaining, “Ugh…” that the youth group is doing a Spaghetti Lunch on Pentecost Sunday, May 31st to raise money for their mission trip. It is so much work to coordinate that she just feels drained. She was at it all day with e-mail updates, making phone calls, answering questions, etc. The junior youth group was supposedly in charge of planning, but it is really Emma, the deacon, and Ms. Karen (youth group leader) who were doing the important stuff. Emma was finding acolyte subs and coordinating music. Finding acolyte subs entails calling the L. family (remember them?) since their daughter is the only non-youth group acolyte. Emma didn’t get them, but left a message and really hopes they just don’t call back so she can just pull and adult for the senior acolyte and that will be that.

(So, now who’s the control freak? Emma along with the deacon and the youth group leaders are the only ones working on the trip? And what is this about coordinating music? Nooooooo, that was not something Emma did. Emma played the piano for services when the organist was out. She played what she was told to, and had nothing to do with coordinating music.)

Emma says she called Evan and Nick because they are the only other musically inclined members. Nick was unsure about contributing, and if he won’t play, that is more work for the rest of them, but Evan’s mom is an orchestra conductor, so he wants to get a grou together to play jazz. So far, it looks like three of them will play; Emma, Evan, and Evan’s friend whose name she can’t remember. Evan plays violat and his friend plays the violin, and “Lacey” knows that Emma plays piano. Emma is a bit nervous because she has never played in a group before. Being homeschooled, and an only child, Emma says she has not had much in the way of opportunity. There are a few homeschool marching bands, bt for some reason, they don’t want a pianist. Emma wonders why. Anyway, after Nick’s response, Emma felt encouraged to see some enthusiasm.

Emma says she is worried about the deacon fussing at her for doing too much at her own discretion. The junior youth group (as she said) should be in charge of all aspects of planning, but they simply aren’t getting it done. Despite the fact that it would teach them a lesson, Emma didn’t think it was right to keep discussing things like they were final while keeping everyone else out of the loop. Emma knows from doing the fashion show how hard it is to work up a score on short notice, so even though it is not her job, she went ahead and started coordinating the music. It’s like, she doesn’t want to and she shouldn’t have to, but with things the way they are with no immediate sign of possible change, she thought it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. If you’ve volunteered someone for something, it’s only common courtesy to let them know. Not that Emma would ever remind the deacon of that, but it’s true.

(Ok, I’m understanding why, when my attorney read these letters he said Emma was all about control. And what is this about “work up a score?” Excuse me? Emma played the only songs she knew well and that was songs from Les Miserables and from Phantom of the Opera. “Work up a Score?” That’s pretty funny? It sounds like she was writing a musical. It was a little embarrassing that Emma played the same songs for both the Mother’s Day brunch and the Spaghetti Lunch because it looked like Emma didn’t know anything else, but no one seemed to mind hearing the same music over again.)

Next, Emma starts talking about how we are going to IKEA the following day to get some bookshelves and a desk for her room. Apparently they were having a really good sale, so sayeth her dad. (Phill was a BIG IKEA fan.) Emma says she desperately needs storage space, so she is excited about going to IKEA, and she will try to send “Lacey” a picture when her shelves are up.

Next Emma talks about Twilla (Of Eternal Hope of Haiti) and her daughter Hope stopping by because Hope wanted Emma to take care of their dog. Twilla had more information about Emma’s trip and Emma will be rooming with Leah, a Korean medical student from Emory. Emma also says that she will need about $70 in ones on her at all times.

May 27, 2009

Emma complains that she hasn’t had much time to write due to home renovations. She states we were working a bit on her room. She figures by the time she moves out, she’ll have it the way she wants and says “no pessimism there or anything.” Emma talks about going to IKEA and how huge lines and misdirection made the trip a couple of hours longer than it should have been.
(Ummmmmmmm, not exactly. We re-did Emma’s room and she had complete control over what she wanted from paint down to furniture. We spent a lot of time looking at IKEA while Emma decided on a bed, and we at lunch at the restaurant. There was one time there were lines at the cashiers, but they moved quickly, so the whole “huge lines and misdirection” was a gross exaggeration.)

Emma talks about church and about going to a cookout for Memorial Day at the home of one of Emma’s “Aunts” from the rescue.

Emma talks about the youth group and about calling, Ari, a youth group member. Emma states that she and Ari were both bored so they talked for almost an hours. Emma claims Ari has never been hostile, but they just have differences about politics, morals, and many other things. Emma says they avoided conflict though, and even though Emma thinks Ari is a closet psycho Marist, she likes her on a personal level. BTW, says emma, if you haven’t done much study of Marxism, the basic philosophy is “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” Emma says extreme political philosophies are an area of interest to her, and complains that most people use the terms Communism, Socialism, Marxism, and Fascism interchangeably and that is one of her pet peeves. She tells “Lacey” the next time she hears someone use one of those terms to ask them what it means and 90% of the time, they won’t be able to tell you.

Emma asks “Lacey” if she has heard So Long Self by Mercy Me. Emma says it is a breakup sont with yourself:

So long, self
Well it’s been fun but I have found somebody else
So long, self
There’s just no room for two
So you are gonna have to move
So long, self
Don’t take this wrong but you were wrong for me, farewell
Oh well, goodbye, don’t cry
So long, self

Emma says she thought the song was kind of silly when she first heard it, but the more she thinks about it, the deeper it seems.
Emma talks about going to book club the night before and how a couple of people were asking advice on family problems. Emma says she’s glad she’s not the only one with a majorly dysfunctional family.

Emma talks about the Deacon, at book club, speaking about the Drama triangle and the three parts of villain, victim, and rescuer. She says to get out of the triangle, you have to refuse to play any of those rolls, and admittedly, the toughest part to get out of is the victim.
(Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Emma has a hard time not playing the victim? Truer words have not been spoken!)

Emma goes on to talk about someone else mentioning being a victim vs. being a volunteer. Basically being a volunteer is making a martyr of yourself. (Hmmmmmmm. Funny, how the woman who mentioned’ victim vs volunteer” at book club later told me that that Emma had made herself into a volunteer.)
Emma tells “Lacey” that her Beta fish, Zorro, says hi and that she will give “Lacey” a detailed account of the Spaghetti Lunch soon.

Letters to “Lacey” Part 11 <<<<<>>>>>>>

Posted on March 21, 2015 by losingemma

Emma Roey, Emma Kate Roey, Emma Katherine Roey

Part 11

(The following day, Emma starts yet another 5 page letter to “Lacey.”)

May 12, 2009

…….Emma mentions that our friend Ski passed away and that she is going to volunteer to get a team together to serve at the funeral…..
(Emma NEVER put the acolyte teams together. There was an adult in charge of doing that, but it does make Emma sound important and in-charge, doesn’t it? As a matter of fact, I was the one to call the priest and let him know that Emma wanted to serve at the funeral because she was fond of Ski.)

May 13, 2009

Emma talks about going going to church book club (with me) and tells “Lacey” that we are reading The Secret Life of Bees. ( by Sue Monk Kidd) and goes on to talk about keeping her phone off at church and youth group because if her friend Rob sees her with her phone, he will text her, “What’ch doin’?” or something similar, even though he is sitting six inches away from her and it’s like “What do you think I’m doing?” Usually, she just rolls her eyes, but occasional will text something back like, “Listening to deacon. Like u SHOULD be.” But it’s just easier to keep her phone off and avoid the problem.

May 14, 2009

Emma complains of a busy day and having to go to the orthodontist and how they were a half hour late for her appointment, and then she had to sit another thirty minutes while the ONLY doctor on duty worked on the patient next to her and then finally got to her, told the assistant what she needed, and left. She says if he knew it was going to take five seconds, why didn’t he do her first? And of course they chose to be jerks on the day she had somewhere else to go. Emma says we barely made it to the viewing for Ski because of the “insert profanity here” orthodontist and that if “Lacey” hasn’t picked up on it, she is in a MOOD.

(Emma’s orthodontists were Dr. Parson’s and Dr. Gilbert in Dacula, Ga. I think now they are called Smiles Forever. They were always very prompt, and I don’t ever remember any of her visits taking an hour. We were usually in and out pretty quickly. When we first started going, I thought it a little odd that it was like an assembly line, with the chairs lined up with patient after patient, but I guess for convenience, this arrangement kept things moving smoothly. For safety’s sake, it would also make it difficult for a patient to accuse a doctor of molestation or anything else, as there are so many people around, and now I think this kind of arrangement is a very good idea. After your child has falsely accused someone of molestation, you look at these things a little differently.
Emma HATED braces and did not appreciate the fact that she would have nice teeth in the long run. I never understood this because I also had braces as a child, and I remember being so proud of my “tinsel teeth.” Ok, I did hate the funky headgear, when I had to wear that, and yes there was some pain involved, but I was happy about my braces. As an adult, I really appreciate that my mother and I had to take a bus and then a subway to go downtown every time we went to the orthodontist. It was a lot of bother. (Thanks mom and dad!) Emma was completely miserable on the days we went to the orthodontist, and seemed to try to make me as miserable is she was with her constant complaining. Her teeth were not that bad, and I often wished we just hadn’t bothered with the braces. It just didn’t seem worth it, but when they came off, she did have a lovely smile. Frequently, after the orthodontist, we would stop at Starbucks for a frozen Frappuccino, which we both loved, but even this didn’t stop the complaining, and Emma would spend the rest of the day whining about how miserable and uncomfortable she was. I still remember the pain of getting the braces tightened. I would go home and take some Tylenol, have soup for dinner, and start feeling better the next day, but with Emma, every trip was pure agony.)

Emma talks about going to her piano lesson that afternoon, and how a large rat snake slithered out from under our car and went into the bushes at her teacher’s home. Emma claimed her teacher freaked out and was shaking so badly that Emma thought she was going to have a seizure!

(Ummmm, no! Emma and I were leaving her paino teacher’s house, and the teacher walked out on the porch like she always did, when we were leaving. I noticed the snake under the car, and the teacher told us she was afraid of snakes. I told her it was a rat snake and that they are harmless. She joked about how she wouldn’t come off the porch to see it, and as we got closer, the snake took off into the bushes. There was no severe shaking, as Emma described. Omigoodness, the drama!)

May 16, 2009

Emma talks about Ski’s funeral and how she couldn’t get a team together to serve because everyone else was in school. She says she did the reading (from Revelations) and everyone was very complimentary.
(See my earlier note of how Emma was NOT in charge of getting a team to serve at the funeral.)

May 17, 2009

Emma says she is really going to sit down and write more than two paragraphs tonight!
Emma talks about Sunday school and how there were blended classes that day, and how the younger kids love having an “awesome teenager” in attendance. She talks about how one of the girls is her “adopted” little sister” and then complains about some of the little girls trying to play matchmaker or asking her why she doesn’t have a boyfriend, and how she will suffer in silence and just complain to “Lacey.”

Emma tells “Lacey” cute stories about little girls fighting over her and two of them sitting with her in church, and having to take them to the bathroom. She says that not having siblings, she forgets about the urgency of pottly, and the dire seriousness of “now” makes her realize her mistake in discussing the subject and wasting precious time, (Asking, “Can you wait until the sermon is over?”) and then complains about having to walk down the aisle all the way to the back of the church an then troop back to the front row. She says she feels like everyone is watching her, and after church many people told her what a good mother she would be. Emma tells “Lacey” that she hates the pressure she feels from these people, like if her highest aspiration isn’t to be a mommy, there’s something wrong with her, but honestly, she doesn’t want children! She can sit with the for a few hours, even a couple of days, and then she is ready for them to go back to where they came from. She doesn’t want the responsibility 24/7. She doesn’t feel like she can say that to people. It’s like with all this gender equality junk, women are STILL expected to be the homemakers and care for children, and if they don’t there is something wrong with them.

(If I said something about having grandchildren one day, Emma would frequently tell me that she wasn’t going to have children. I usually said something like, “Good. You shouldn’t want children at your age. You have too many other things to do.” Or that she needed to finish growing up first, or something along those lines. Emma would frequently get angry and try to convince me that no, she NEVER wanted children, and try to get me to argue with her. Let’s face it, as a mother, when your 15-16 year old is talking about not having children, you don’t take it too seriously. I remember feeling the same way. There is a time and a place, and frankly, contrary to what is happening in a lot of society, I thought it was a good thing that Emma didn’t want children at that point. It wasn’t something I was going to argue over, but Emma would go on and on trying to convince me that she was never having children. I think she got mad that I didn’t argue with her about it. Later on, when Phill decided he wanted a divorce, he told me that Emma never wanted children because she was afraid she would be a mother like me.)

In the next part of the letter, Emma talks about the youth group end of school party, and complains that one of the kids brought a Wii and how she wished they would at least communicate with others some of the time instead of playing video games. Before the party, Emma went home with her friend Jordan, and Jordan and her little brother were trying to teach Emma to play tennis on the Wii. Emma states that she has never played a video game in her life! She says she did pretty badly, but it is not important to her as she thinks her hobbies are a bit more worthwhile. “It’s a lot harder to get into the video industry than the music industry. Ya know?”

(Another lie, er, I mean, exaggeration about having NEVER played video games in her life. Ummm, not true. Emma played lots of video games when she was younger, and was really hooked on Bejeweled when Phill put it on the computer. Overall, yes, she wasn’t really that into video games, but if she found something that interested her, she would play.)

Emma comments on her youth group leader having a Mill Creek yearbook, and says she pretend to be sad about not having a yearbook, and how she and another child who were homeschooled would have a yearbook of one. Then, this young girl went off into a corner and made Emma a homeschool yearbook with a napkin and a sharpie, and everyone signed it, even Ms. Karen, the youth group leader. Emma says she values that napkin more than the $80-500 page year book she got from Jackson County Comprehensive High School.

Emma tells a few stories about the youth group party and then mentions talking to Evan, whom she would develop a crush on over the summer, about music. She says she envies him because he plays two instruments and she only plays one. Emma says she tried harmonica for a while only to discover that it was not her calling. Evan told Emma that playing the recorder was mandatory in middle school, but since Emma was homeschooled, she wasn’t aware of this. Then she mentions playing recorder when she was in a homeschool program, and as if it’s not bad enough to hate the instrument and be utterly unable to play it everybody else got their recorders through the schools and gets white ones, but Emma had a clear blue one brought from home because her mom won’t buy her a normal one. That makes her inadequacy even more obvious. What’s so funny is that Evan said, “You got it for your birthday with the little book, right? I was the same way.”

Emma says being hopeless on the recorder and bringing one from home that always caught the teacher’s attention made her call out every mistake Emma made, so it made her feel better to know there was another person on the face of the earth who had to go through music class with a blue recorder. Emma says she doesn’t know why, but she found that comforting.

(Omigoodness, poor Emma! Scarred for life by a transparent blue recorder!! Goodness! Is this another form of abuse? Why didn’t she call DFACS back then? Things wouldn’t have escalated to iris folding, expensive drama classes, and all the other horrible things Emma’s mother forced upon her! Ok, in all seriousness. Emma greatly exaggerates her ineptness at the harmonica and the recorder. She could play both of them, but she was not interested. Since she already played the piano, she had no difficulty learning the fingering and playing the recorder.
And as for that horrible blue recorder, I don’t remember when I got it. A friend of ours sold scholastic books, and I would let Emma pick some out, and I would pick some out that I thought might be good for school. I got the recorder, yes with the music book, thinking she would enjoy it, and we gave it to her either for her birthday or Christmas. Had I known it would lead to such a traumatic experience, I certainly wouldn’t have bothered. Emma started figuring it out and playing some of the simple songs the very first day she had it.
Emma took a recorder class as one of her electives in the homeschool program we attended. The teacher told the kids they could pick up a recorder at the dollar store and that would be just fine. Since Emma already had a recorder, I didn’t worry about getting another. Silly me, I should have spent the extra buck.
Ok, in all honesty, I’m just assuming that Emma didn’t have enough teen angst to complain to “Lacey” about, so she had to turn the recorder story into something it wasn’t. Funny how she never complained about the blue recorder when she was taking the class. )

Emma tells “Lacey” about playing Apples to Apples at the party and explains how the game is played, and then how her parents picked her, Rob, Molly, Jordan, and Alex up and gave everyone a ride home while the kids played the sentence game where each person in the car adds a word to a sentence. Emma says she typed a sentence into her phone so she would remember to tell “Lacey” and it was, “How many monkeys can t ink when there is a demented psychopathic anteater chasing them around?” and says there was another sentence they made about purple ants juggling yellow humans, Lol.

Emma signs off saying that that is about it for the sonderful adventures of her life thus far and to write soon!

Blessings and Love, Emma-Kate

Letters to “Lacey” Part 10

Posted on March 15, 2015 by losingemma

Phill and Emma when we were on a sightseeing trip in NYC. Phill Roey, Emma Roey, Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey

Part 10
May 9, 2009
(Emma starts another 5 page letter to “Lacey.”)

Another, “Hey Laura!” and Emma tells “Lacey” that it is 1:10 am and she can’t sleep because she took her migraine meds. Emma talks about her mom teaching part time at a local Christian homeschool arts program and that the parent showcase was the previous night. Emma says that it is a collection of skits by all the classes strung together on a basic story line about happiness, truth, freedom, etc., and says that she went to the performance because A) she had nothing better to do, and B) a lot of people there found her on facebook, so she thought it would be fun to see them again. She didn’t remember until she was actually there, but everyone was so nice. No one told her how she could dress better, but ten people must have told her how pretty she looked. She was amazed how those people cared about her even though they hadn’t seen her in over a year. Coming from public school, it was hard to believe that two communities could coexist……. She states that she hopes to go back there next year now that she really appreciates it. (Funny thing is, we let Emma do online school the following year and she refused to go back to the homeschool arts program which was held on Fridays for ½ day.)

Emma goes on to say that a few people were interested in what public school was like and she was so torn at answering that question. In some ways she would say you have to see firsthand what a public school is like so you can really appreciate that you aren’t there, but in some ways you would be sooo much happier if you never had to go through that. For instance, forgive Emma for putting it bluntly, but when y ou barely recognize the existence of the f-word, you aren’t going to be grateful that people don’t shout it at each other sixty times daily, ya know?

By the way, Emma says, if some of this letter is incoherent, just don’t worry about it. Keep in mind that she is extremely sleep deprived and burning up. Did she mention that the a/c was broken? So whatever temperature it is outside is the temperature inside, and we have a wonderful A/C guy, but the problem is getting him to show up. He can never manage that. He was supposed to be there yesterday. (Ok, the part about the a/c guy is true. Jeff was wonderful and reasonable, but he rarely showed up when he said he would, and he rarely called to tell you he wasn’t coming.)

Later on in the day, Emma continues the letter around 8pm:

Emma says the song “What If” by Nicole Nordeman has been running through her head:

They say the cross will only make a fool of you.
And what if it’s true?
What if He takes His place in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taughter us love and came in peace
But then the story ends
What then?
But what if you’re wrong?
What if there’s more?
What if there’s hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump
And just close your eyes
What if the arms that catch you, cathc you by surprise….

Emma says she loves the chorus to the song. It makes her wonder about all the world religions, our religion atheism, and reminds her of a couple o her favorite pieces of wisdom she’s picked up over the years:
If Christians die to find out atheists were right all along, what do they lose? Nothing. But if atheists die to find out Christians were right, what do they lose? Everything.

Also, she got this from a guy who spoke at a graduation: At college you will be met with logic that makes sense and sounds good, and also totally contradicts Christ. Yes, there will be proof that Christianity is a lie. To Adam and Eve, there was proof that nothing bad would happen if they ate the forbidden fruit. (Emma says in parentheses that she was listening to this going “wow”…) From the beginning, Satan has used sound logic to trick us. It totally puts terms like “fact, reality, logic” into a new perspective, huh? (I’m thinking Emma fell for Satan’s trick. What about you?)

May 10, 2009

Emma talks about the church’s Mother’s Day Luncheon and Fashion Show and complains that she always ends up in the fashion show. She never volunteers for it, but her name magically appears in the bulleting as a model anyway. Oh, well. Don’t let Emma make too much of a martyr of herself, she goes on, as it wasn’t that bad. There were a couple of new twists in her part this year. They called her Friday night and asked her to play some dinner music at the lunch while people were coming in. Oh, ya, a day and a half of notice, let’s see what she can come up with?

Emma played some of the score to Phantom of the Opera, which she knew fairly well. Emma was pleased and embarrassed that Evan stood beside her and listened from beginning to end……
Emma says she also volunteered to help serve people their food, and this was just as well because it took away from the fact that she wasn’t eating. She tells “Lacey” not to worry because she’s not anorexic, but she doesn’t like the food. Emma tells how she was serving one side of the room and Evan was serving the other.
After everybody finished lunch, Emm ran upstairs to dress for the fashion show, and one of the younger girls told her they heard her playing the piano and how good she was, but that she thought the church would get a “professional” and the girl’s older sister said, “Shhh! She is a professional!” (True? I would guess this was a cute fabrication.)

By the way, Emma tells “Lacey”, whenever she goes to church, she sees to effortlessly accumulate a posse, so it’s not surprising that she ended up on the catwalk with two little girls….

May 11, 2009

Emma says this letter may be a bit short, but she’s going to get it in the mail the following day. She is looking forward to the end of school party the youth grou is having the following Sunday.

Emma talks about getting “Lacey’s” e-mail and about “Lacey’s” mom’s breast cancer. Emma says this must have been really trying, but it makes “Lacey” a huge part of who she is and it is amazing that she can share her experiences so openly because it can be such a blessing for those who are hurting.
(If you’ve read the blog, you already know that Emma lied about “Lacey’s” mom’s breast cancer. There were at least 2 or 3 times Emma claimed “Lacey’s” mother was hospitalized and on death’s door. They didn’t know if she would pull through! Oh the drama! My attorney spoke to “Lacey’s” parents, and I spoke to “Lacey’s” mother myself. She did have breast cancer, but was treated as an outpatient and was NEVER hospitalized, and was close to dying.)
Emma tells “Lacey” that she loves her poems because they express what Emma herself would say if she had the courage to write it down. Going back to not sharing emotions/trusting people. Emma feels like if she doesn’t put it on paper or saved it on a computer, it’s just that much less likely that other people will find out how she really feels. It’s so much easier to talk to “Lacey” because she doesn’t have any expectations Emma has to uphold. Emma doesn’t have to worry about something she may say wrong and shattering “Lacey’s fragile impression of her. Emma says she builds a façade and cultivates it, continually adding detail and chrisma and charm until it doesn’t even occur to people that there might be something deeper. She feels like it is too late to stop. It’s different with “Lacey” though because “Lacey” doesn’t see the face, ya know? Emma says she guesses “Lacey” does the same thing.

Also, about the poem, about looking into your eyes and seeing the real you, (not the façade)….It’s funny, Emma doesn’t even worry about people seeing past it anymore. She realizes now that people only see what they want to see. Emma wonders what they’d think if they knew who she really was, but she also knows that they don’t want to know. They see a sweet, well-spoken, gentle young lady and they like what they see, so they don’t want to look any further. That is both relieving and disconcerting at the same time, you know what she means? It is just nice to know that someone else (Lacey) is going through what Emma is going through. Emma says she looks at Jordan, Evan, Rob… do they ever feel this way? She doesn’t know and she never asks because that would be admitting she feels this way, which Emma could never do. Then she looks at the little girl she babysits who’s life’s ambition is to be a teenager. Will she feel like this, or will it be as great for her as she th inks it is for Emma. It is so hard to think about all this…
Emma says these thoughts remind her of the chorus form a song by Jars of Clay, Two Hands:
I use on hand to pull you closer,
The other to push you away…
I have a broken disposition
I’m a liar that thirsts for the truth..

Emma says the song is about being divided and how we could do much more if we were united.
(I am refraining from commenting here. Too much teen angst, which I know is just part of growing up.)

Emma says she just said this, but she is so comforted to know someone else is going through the same thing she is. It is also nice to have someone to talk to that she feels like she can actually trust. She thinks she can trust “Lacey” because she doesn’t have the expectations that everyone else has. No one tells her what to think of Emma. Does that make sense? She hopes so. It doesn’t make sense to Emma how she can be so h appy sometimes and so utterly depressed other times. Does “Lacey” feel the same way? Emma just looked at this letter and saw that she was all over the place on the emotional side of things.

Emma talks about an older couple that we were friends with at church. The husband passed away the year before, and the wife was now going on hospice.

Then Emma bounces back to see if she can end on a lighthearted note and tells a funny story about Jordan calling her after she sent out the e-mail about the youth group party.
“What day is the party? It doesn’t say.” Jordan asks, and Emma tells her to read Emma the subject line which has “Sunday” in it, and Jordan asks, “Oh, it’s Sunday?”
Emma sas that Jordan will be the first of many who will call or e-mail her with that question, and then mentions she is babysitting the following night, so she can watch Aquamarine again…………
Blessings and Love, Emma-Kate

Letters to “Lacey” Part 9

Posted on March 10, 2015 by losingemma

Emma on a youth group church trip where they went scuba diving in a pool. Emma Roey. Emma Katherine Roey, Emma Kate Roey.

Part 9

May 7, 2009
The very next day Emma starts another letter to “Lacey.” This one is 3 pages, single spaced. She starts out saying how she resolves to write more light-hearted thoughts about nothing in particular (to compensate for the depressing letter she mailed out this morning). She says this is the last day she is locked in the back room of the counseling office at Jackson County Comprehensive High School. She says she finished her last final and is bored out of her mind. That along wigh feeling bad for not writing “Lacey” last week (because she went to SEFF) is why she is writing so much this week, so she will share all her random thoughts, stories and other stuff she feels compelled to share with “Lacey.”

Hmmmm. Where should she start? Emma says her mom keeps texting her since shes at the school, and of course she has her phone on vibrate, so she jumps when she is not expecting to get a text. It happened during lunch and everyone was laughing at Emma (not with her) when in the middle of a sentence she went, “Ahhh!” She is lucky the administrators didn’t see her look at her phone. Students aren’t supposed to have them on campus. Emma says she is not technically a student, but they treat her like one because they don’t know any different. She is not sure if these qualify as happy thoughts, but she is trying….

(And no, I did not make it a habit of texting Emma while she was at school. If I were to text her, it usually would have been in response to a text Emma sent me. I did not feel like I should text Emma while she was at school. Also, there was no rule about the kids not having cell phones. They ALL had cell phones. They were not supposed to have them out during class, but there was no rule that they could not have them at school. A slight exaggeration there.)

Emma tells “Lacey” just so she knows, Emma deleted the last letter after she printed it yesterday. That way no one can ever find it and trace it back to Emma. She says she will do the same with this letter. It never hurts to be safe.

(Hmmm. I wonder why Emma felt the need to delete her letters? What did she have to hide? I guess she didn’t expect “Lacey” to turn them over to my attorney.)

Emma’s next paragraph starts off saying that Oh, she can think of something that is not depressing! She got an e-mail that Rob tagged her in a note on Facebook. So, she opened up the note, figuring it would be something worth reading, but it was chain mail. Emma says she loves her friends, but does not understand them.

Emma says she just texted Jordan and asked what was a funny youth group story, trying to think of something to tell “Lacey” and Jordan texted back “idk…….monopolyzng? :P” Emma says to remember that Jordan can’t or won’t spell… and anything that she says includes “idk” whether she really knows or not). Emma says she THINKS she knows what Jordan means by that, and it’s a story she doesn’t think she’s told “Lacey.” The kids were at youth grou one night, talking about “norms” which basically meant Ms. F. was talking about how to run the group and a few of them were half paying attention while the rest were off in na-na land (teenagers do not listen well at 7:30 on a Sunday night). Ms. F. was talking about how everyone needs to feel comfortable sharing their ideas, and this won’t happen if one person keeps talking. To back up her point, she told us about an instance in the book club where one adult participant (whom she did not name) was monopolizing the conversation and because of that, other people were too intimidated to contribute. Then she asked the kids to share their experiences with this problem and Evan, who was still processing the book club example raised his and and said, “But Father T. is the priest…..isn’t he supposed to monopolize the converstation?” Everybody, Even Ms. F. started laughing.
Emma goes on to say that most of them knew that adult she was referring to was Mrs. L, who’s family Emma wrote about earlier, and everyone knew it was not Father T.
(Ok, the only problem here is that Ms. L. never attended bookclub. I attended book club, and Emma often went with me, but never went without me. Mrs. L. never participated in the book club Just an opportunity for Emma to speak ill of someone she didn’t like. It did not matter if it were true or not.)

Emma goes on to say that Jordan is sort of upset with her bacuse she asked Emma what she would say if she were to speak at Jordan’s funeral. Emma gets more verbose telling the story, but basically says she would want to tell a story that people would remember Jordan by, so she would tell about when they were at camp and Jordan was performaning her color guard routine with the mop.
“What?? That’s what you want people to remember me by?? Why?? That’s mean!!”
Emma says that the problem was that Jordan knew exactly what she wanted Emma to say before they started talking, but unfortunately, Emma didn’t, so now Jordan is mad at her for saying the wrong thing at her imaginary funeral. And how does Emma end up with friends she can’t understand?

Emma’s next paragraph starts out with, “Guess what?” Emma says she still has an hour and fifty-seven minutes to talk to “Lacey” and isn’t “Lacey” thrilled. She also changed to a smaller font so she won’t have to print out as many pages. Let her see, what life changing venture can Emma tell “Lacey” about now? Oooo, she got a camera. It’s a Kodak and it’s dark purple. It stores almost 2000 pictures. Now she can take pictures of her friends and be assured she is not in them. Of course, she will have to be careful not to let it out of her hands… She is sure her friends would be absolutely delighted to torture her with her own camera. They have enough fun pulling out cameras or phones and pointing them at her. Oh, and there’s a really funny video Jordan has of Confirmation last summer. When you hit play, everything is blurry and then it focuses on the group and they all make funny faces. Then you her Jordan say, “I’m taking a video…” and everyone drops their poses and grumbles. Lol.

Then Emma says oh wow, Jordan just texted her. All it says is, “c pretty butum.” And Emma actually does not see the pretty button because apparently Jordan forgot the picture she ment to attach. Or knowing Jordan, she may have even forgotten to attach the pretty button video she thought to take for Emma’s viewing pleasure.

What other useless material does Emma feel like sharing. She may tell Jordan about the time the pool collapsed….then Jordan texts again with a video attachment that is labeled “pretty butun” and the video is 23 seconds long, but it’s very dark, so it is hard to tell if it is a button on Jordan’s knee under her desk. Emma says she can hear Jordan’s Geometry teacher in the background saying, “And with the second prep, I want you to do for homework…I will take this up” and the video cuts off.
Next Emma goes on to tell the pool story about how she and Kayla Benifield Weaver collapsed our inflatable pool, but they were fine and came out miraculously unscathed except for Kayla hitting her head on a tree.
(Another Brian Wiilliams/Emma Roey moment here, as I was there when the pool collapsed, and no, Kayla did not hit her head on a tree. I wonder if Emma had to duck from sniper fire as well?)

Emma writes a little more fluff, killing time about looking out the window and all the things she sees in the parking lot, how she has an hour and 15 minutes left, complains about the 2 hours she spends on the school bus, talks about an upcoming church youth group trip… Emma complains about needing a bathing suit, but the only thing she can find in her size is a bikini, and she would like to order a tankini, but they are so expensive.…. and then signs off with the usual:
Blessings and Love, Emma-Kate

(One last note about the bikini. I don’t know why Emma felt the need to say the only thing she could find in her size was a bikini. At that point, we were busy finishing up with school and did not go shopping for a bathing suit until probably sometime in June. In fact, I had ordered Emma a tankini from Land’s End, but after she got it, she decided she didn’t like it and refused to wear it. If only she’d told me that before she wore it so I could have returned it. I don’t understand this need to say the only thing she could find was a bikini. Emma never would wear a bikini, and we did find a lovely black and white suite at Kohls’s that met with her approval. See Pic……….. )

Losing Emma

Tag Archives: Emma Kate Roey

Letters to Lacey Part 16, Emma Accuses Johnny Boddie **Completed June 21, 2015*