| Mrs.
Gelman,
I met
Jascha my senior year in high school. I went to Cancun during spring
break with a bunch of friends from Andover. We all stayed at a hotel
called the Fiesta Americana Cancun. A group of seniors from Groves were
registered at the same hotel. Jascha was one of them.
As
people who met Jascha tended to do, I became his friend--during college
and after. The last time I saw him was Thanksgiving, 1998, at a party at
Paul and Brooke Wolfe's house. Jascha and I hung out outside the house
for a while, just the two of us under a porch light. I live in New York
now and hadn’t seen Jascha for several months. He was so sweet and
curious and interested in my life. You know how you can have those
moments where you see yourself through someone else’s eyes and you
really like what you see? When someone's genuine excitement about your
life allows you to stop being so insecure for a moment? That night was
one such moment. He made me feel proud of myself. He gave me a moment; I
knew it then and I know it now.
You
should know that when I initially started hanging out with Jascha--back
in Cancun in 1990--I had motives beyond friendship: I had been given a
task by my friend, Rachel Feldstein. Rachel wanted Jascha to ask her to
his prom and I waged an all-out campaign to land her the goods. I
schmoozed him, I flattered him, I called him pretending to have
important questions just so I could launch into some undoubtedly
not-too-subtle pitch. Jascha seemed to know he was being lobbied and
didn’t seem to mind the attention one bit. (I will note, for the
record, that Rachel and I succeeded.) It was all so silly, but he really
was a prize to be won.
As I
mentioned, I come to this web site frequently, and I’ve thought about
writing you so many times. I haven’t known what to say. Just know that
Jascha made a difference in people’s lives.
With
warmest regards,
Katie
Rosman |