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When
my 15 year old, Monica was 3 years old, I started journaling to
write down memories. I have a grand total of 14 pages! Not a
habit I stuck with. I found this old journal and as luck would have
it several pages are about Matt. This is because Matt was truly
Monica's first love. We also have several scrapbook pages devoted to
Monica and Matt's torrid love affair! Luckily, Sherie handled it all
in stride! I am going to just copy verbatim the entries I wrote
about Monica and Matt. During this time, we saw Matt and Sherie
about 6 times a year. They lived in Dayton and we lived in
Cincinnati. We had met them through our mutual friends, the Ruschaus.
Like so many others, we became instant friends - although Matt and I
got in an argument over Pictionary on that first trip - but that's a
different story for a different time!
Written June 12, 1996 - Monica was 3.
Monica started liking
Matt Schleich (he's 28) when she was 1 before she even had met him.
She would see pictures of Matt from Norris Lake in the photo album
especially one of him with no shirt on.
Then at parties in the summer when she was 2, he was nice to
her. In the fall, Monica would say things like "What is my Matt
doing right now?" or "What is my Matt wearing?"
If we'd say, we're going to see him she would laugh hard and
say "aawah".
Then in December 1995, Matt became her obsession when he threw her
stick ball up and it stuck to the skylight in our living room for 2
weeks. She calls him "that Dirty Guy". She told me one day
out of the blue that she is going to marry Matt someday.
At Christmas, Bob gave me a picture calendar and one of the pictures
was of Monica eating a PBJ with no shirt on. She was looking at the
calendar with Bob and said "I want to see that picture of Matt
with no shirt on."
In
January, we were at dinner and Bob and I were talking about work.
Monica pipes in and says "sometimes Matt calls me
girlfriend."
Also in January 1996, we met Matt and Sherie at Macaroni Grill and
took pictures of Matt and Monica. In late February (she was 2 years
> old - soon to be 3), she got on the phone with Matt and was
acting like a flirty teenager. She was saying: "I'm serious...
I'm serious.... I'm coming to your house for dinner...no
kidding....guess what I'm looking at?....pictures of you holding
me."
She talked about Matt so much from December through April that her
babysitter, Maggie, said that Monica is always talking about Matt.
Out of the blue saying, "Where's my Matt" or
"that dirty guy threw the stick ball up". Maggie wanted to
know who Matt was -- a neighbor boy or what?
Matt moved to Minneapolis in May. Monica handled it pretty well and
isn't talking about him as much.
The end of my journal entry.
Today Monica won't breathe a word to me about who she likes. Matt
was a charming special someone and Monica knew that at her young
age. We all think about and miss Matt every day.
Bob, Carolyn and Monica Hennessey
P.S. Monica doesn't know we submitted this. At 15, she would
certainly not approve of this story being told but someday she will
appreciate it. I hope Matt's family and friends enjoy it.
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