Stacey Knelson, 1963 - 2012
Stacey Knelson passed away on November 28, 2012. She was 49 years old.
If you're reading this page, chances are that you've already seen the story about Stacey's Mazda RX-7, and how it was stolen and vandalized and recovered, and how a few hundred internet friends and I helped Stacey get that car back to showroom condition. You probably also saw that Stacey and I developed a very close relationship over that period.
All of those e-mail messages eventually gave rise to telephone conversations, lots of them, until 2003 when some of her friends conspired to bring her "internet boyfriend" out to British Columbia (BC) for her surprise 40th birthday party. I was a little uncomfortable with being a center of attention at a party, but I agreed to come out for the following week. We had seen pictures of each other before that first face-to-face meeting, but photographs didn't do this girl justice.
You can probably guess where all of this was going from here. An internet friendship became more than just friends. Stacey visited me here at the Jersey shore on several occasions, and I visited her in British Columbia. Stacey even brought her daughter, Ashley, to the Jersey Shore on a few occasions. When we were in New Jersey, we spent plenty of time on the beaches and boardwalks, and took advantage of the music scene in nearby Asbury Park - we went to the Stone Pony, but she never got to see Bruce Springsteen - and, of course, we spent too much money in the local restaraunts and clubs.
And I spent some time in BC. Met all of Stacey's family, and enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal with the extended family, some target shooting with the boys, and a day trip to the family camp site in the mountains east of Vancouver.
It's always difficult to keep a long distance romance going, regardless of how many plane tickets you buy and with monthly phone bills to rival any plane fare. Eventually, 3000 miles and 3 time zones are going to take their toll. Even so, we stayed friends - right up to her last days.
I have plenty more stories to share, but not here. Ask me about Yankee Stadium, or the Blues Cruise, or the Northeast Blackout of 2003, or "pork roll, egg and cheese" sandwiches, or Ashley and birch beer. Fried oreos. Seaside Park, NJ. Billy Hector and the Fairlanes. The Allenhurst Beach Club. Really good times.
I miss that girl.
