Memories of Danae Page 2 At Danae's funeral, a book was left out for people to sign and share their memories of Danae. The comments were just so beautiful that I've decided to share some with you. If you never met her, you will know her alot better when you've finished.   ...During my high school years, I was lucky enough to become friends with Danae...I was at Danae's 16th birthday party...I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude that you raised Danae as you did. Everything she did, and everything she was, that I knew of has transcended into my life somehow. So to be able to experience a lot of great times with her, and being being able to have these awesome memories has really been something else. But even through any amounts of pain that has been delivered with emotion, I'm incredibly proud and grateful I was one of the chosen to experience what she had to offer the world, and as a result have completely changed my life for the better, forever. In everyone of my days, the memory of her lives. Everything that has resulted because of her life and death has made a greater impact on me, than any amount of lessons ever combined has shown me. Anonymous ...my little brother (I guess he's not so little anymore, he's in grade 12 now) used to go to school with Danae. They were in Mr. Amundrud's grade 1 class together. We also both used to see Danae, Celene and Jocelyn at the after school day care...I can still remember Danae clinging to you whenever you were around. I remember she was always drawing pictures of you and telling people how pretty you were...My brother and Danae used to get teased at day care because supposedly someone saw them holding hands outside on the playground...I remember whenever they played games together (like cards), if Danae was loosing, my brother would always let her win. It wasn't because she was a poor sport, but rather because he knew how competitive she was. The funny part, was when Danae found out what my brother was doing, she got mad. She said she could do anything just as good as he could without cheating.. My brother always told me that for such a little thing, she sure could hollar loud. B. F. ...I remember when Danae was in grade 8, on her birthday, I wanted to give her something, but all I had in my pockets was a looney. So I gave it to her and I told her that I had wanted to give her something, but that was all I had. She promised me that she would never spend this looney, and that even though it wasn't a lot, it meant a lot to her and it did to me too....She was one of those "cool persons" in elementery, and she was cool because she got along with everybody. I wasn't a "cool" one, but she was so nice to me, even though I wasn't part of her group of friends. It seemed it didn't matter for her if you were considered cool or not, just as long as you were yourself, and at that age, not a lot of people thought that way. She was very mature! And I will always remember when she gave me her picture where she signed "you'll always be my baby". I was so touched. Without being one of Danae's best friends, she brought a lot to me. She was a very special person... Perrine When Danae and I were still in elementery school, we came up with an idea to try and make some money. We decided to host the event at Danae's house, made up invitations and sent them to all of our friends. The invitations included a price list: Special on Macaroni Deluxe $5 - Macaroni $8 - Macaroni & Hot Dog $10 - Macaroni, Hot Dog & Pool Usage Needless to say, not one of our friends showed up! Miranda Danae talked me into playing a game of trust at recess in grade 7. After giving me the rules that no matter what, I must not open my eyes and just trust her, Danae began leading me around the school grounds. She told me to just keep walking straight. It was Spring and there were a lot a mud puddles around. Eventually, Danae led me right into a deep mud puddle. When I opened my eyes and saw where Danae had led me, she just started laughing. I saw red! In a flash, I pulled her in with me and for the rest of the day, we had to go through school with muddy clothes. Kim We (Miranda & Kim), Erin, Shanna and Jocelyn (friend) were at Danae's house for a sleep over. After a while, we decided to have a water chugging contest. After drinking about 14 litres of water between us, we couldn't handle anymore. Most of us spent the night in the bathroom...puking! Kim & Miranda In grade 7, our church youth group went camping. Danae, Toby and I were staying in the same tent and didn't want to settle down when we were told to go to sleep. Instead, we layed there, making barnyard noises. Toby's dad finally got mad and yelled, "Enough!!". Even the forest creatures didn't make dare make a peep after that!! Kim We went to an office building for a field trip in grade 10. On the top floor, we (Danae, Kim & Miranda) discovered the stair wells. At lunch time, the building closed down. The teachers went crazy looking for us while we went exploring each floor in the deserted building. we even went through the construction site on one of the floors. What the teachers didn't realize, as they went up and down the elevators looking for us, was that we were using the stairwells. As they would go up, we would go down. Kim & Miranda Once we old enough that we didn't have to sit with our parents in church anymore, Danae, Toby and I would 'occasionally' sneak out during the service. The ushers would see us but we would run away and hide. One time, we hid under the stage in the gym where the chairs are stored. We could hear the ushers looking for us but we didn't make any noise and they never caught us. We even figured out how to get into the library by slipping our hands through the book return slot, unlatching the lock and hiding in there. I often wonder why the ushers never told our parents. Kim I never truly knew Danae, but I saw her on the badminton court. I remember playing her in the finals one year. I believe it was grade 9. Girls double, very competitive and intense! Every point was essential, neither team would give up. Though there were some rough points in that match, I can honestly remember Danae always having a smile on her face. I knew she was a very intense player and wanted the match SOOO MUCH, but hey, so did I! How I hated losing! I hated it more than anything, and yes I still do. But in everything there has to be a winner, and Danae's team won. Unlike most teams I played, she was the only one who told me that it was an awesome game and was worth every minute. She shook my hand and congratulated my partner and I on the silver medal. Most girls wouldn't do that, but Danae, a true team mate, a true team player! The type you look up to. Most people don't realize what a simple smile does to someone. Seeing that pretty smile on Danae's face honestly made me want to just go hug her! She's an amazing person! Rebekah I met Danae in grade 9 and was in her Science class. We had to work with cow eyes and she was part of my group. I wasn't into the whole thing and she was, so she just let me watch and she did the whole thing. From then on, I had a huge respect for her. We had many classes together after that and although I never did things out of school with her, we hung out with a lot of the same friends. She was also in the youth group with Kim M. and I. I still remember the Friday before her accident. I was standing outside of the school waiting for my friends to come out and she was just leaving with her car. She went over the speed bump in front of the school and her car made this weird noise, almost like she had it in the wrong gear...she just looked up and smiled. It's weird how you remember things like that. She was always smiling. She was one amazing girl! Tracy C. I met Danae for the first time while sitting outside Marion Graham, our high school, in grade 9. We started talking and realized that Jackie Marquis (writer of Danae's Song), was my aunt and Danae's hair stylist. I told my Aunt Jackie about it and she hooked us up over the phone. We became friends after that. Later, when Jocelyn (Danae's oldest sister) began singing in Aunt Jackie's band, we hung out together at their practices. We went to every single practice and would sit there giggling. Danae had a crush on crush on Curtis (Aunt Jackie's son and my cousin) but he was too old for her. He was the one who got her so interested in playing the drums. When the band would take a break, Danae and I would go outside and use rocks to draw hearts on the cement and scribble our crushes in. Paige M.     While on a family vacation in Hawaii, Celene (Danae's sister), Danae and Louis (Danae's dad) participated in a class to learn the traditional dance of Hawaii...the hula dance. Jocelyn (Danae's sister) and I watched as the younger girls danced their hearts out. They were very determined to get it right. Later on, while shopping, Danae bought herself a hula dancing outfit, complete with a grass skirt and even coconut shells for the top. The next evening, after putting on her costume, Danae performed the hula dance for us. We caught it on video camera and can't help but laugh when we watch it. While in grade 8, Danae, Kim, Miranda, Erin and Toby went to a planned teen activities night at Lawson Civic Centre. During the evening, several contests were held for prizes. The first was to eat as many lemons as you could in a given time period. Most of the contestants could barely manage 1/4 of one. Danae won the movie, Air Force One for eating 3 whole lemons. The next contest was dancing by the pool. This time, Danae won a poster for...you guessed it... doing the hula! We were at Danae's 16th birthday party. She was having a sleepover but there weren't enough beds for everyone. Danae said we could sleep in Celene's (Danae's sister) waterbed which is only a double size. Six of us spent the night on it, singing, all the while fighting for the best spot. Miranda & Kim We had a sleepover and pizza party with all our Silverwood girlfriends at Kim's house. Danae's great gramma had given Danae a hideous, pink mumu for Christmas. She insited on wearing it all the time as her pajamas and we always teased her about how ugly it was. Danae didn't care though, and wore it to come over to Kim's house that night. To make matters worse, she biked home in the mumu and picked up a game to bring back to Kim's place. We never thought she would have the guts to wear it in public! Miranda & Kim Danae has always been known for being very independent. She seldom asked for help or gave explanations about what she was doing....she just went out and did it. When she was about 5 years old, our family was camping at Attons Lake for the annual ball tournament. In between games, we took our girls down to the lake for a swim. Suddenly, we realized that Danae had disappeared. Panic broke out as we began to think she had drowned. The guys from our ball team were yelling at everyone to get out of the water as they began diving from the pier to try and find her. People stood on the beach with their hands over their mouths and just watched the divers looking for Danae. Suddenly, a small voice came up behind me and said, "What's going on?". It was Danae! She had just quietly gone to the bathroom. After kissing and hugging her, we made her listen to a VERY LONG lecture about letting us know when she was going somewhere. My dear Danae, ...I wish you would have made a better choice then to get into that car that night. I wish I could go back and change the way things went. Unfortunately, I know my wishes cannot come true. I try to tell myself that you're in a better place now, Nae Nae, but the problem is that I cannot imagine you somewhere else then in this world. I want you to know that everything is totally different just knowing you're not part of our world. You have honestly changed my life. You taught me how to be myself no matter what people think, no matter how embarassing it may be. You showed me what the word happiness meant and how happy you can be by being yourself. It gave me strength for everything. I now am myself and one of the happiest persons in this world. You would be so proud of me, Danae. You wrote me on your grade 8 class picture that I'll always be your baby, and that makes me bleieve you'll be watching over me whenever I will fid myself. It makes me feel safe. How I miss your smiling face, your good mood and your will of doing anything everyone thought impossible. You had so many things ahead of you: swimming with sharks, getting married to Gavin Rosedale. I remember when you and Miranda had gotten his water bottle at the Bush concert and you cut it in half to share it. You were so full of generosity. You always surprised me. ...That day (when Danae died), I realized how precious life is. I cried, but the tears coming down from my face were tears of anger. Why did such a wonderful person have to be taken from so many loving people? She did not deserve this... I think Danae is in me. I now live life as full as I can. I don't ask myself too many questions anymore, I just do what it is I want to do. I talk about everything with everyone, and am never afraid to say what I think. Thank you, Danae, for blessing me with this part of you in me. ...I want you to know that I have so many regrets. Why didn't I ever tell you how much you had done for me, how important and how it changed me, how YOU had changed me? I miss you so much... Love you lots. Perrine (your baby) I went to school with Danae. I use to have the biggest crush on her. One day, I had shaved my head and Danae kept on petting it because she liked the feel of it. I will always remember her. Danae was a beautiful person on the inside and outside. When she came into this world she made her family so happy...when she left, Danae made the whole world sad. J.S. ...Danae and I were in the same class... Mr. Pekush was sitting at his desk. He could not see her because she was sitting on the ground beside her friend, Kelly. Danae and Kelly were talking about their boyfriends... She always had something interesting to say. J.S. When I came into grade 9, Danae was in grade 10. She was friends with a lot of the seniors. My first time meeting her, she was insisting to her friends not to be cruel to my friends and I. Of course, after this, I grew a great respect for her...she was very kind to me during the too short of time I knew her. Of course, the grade twelves did dress us up like babies...diapers and all...but I'm glad Danae was there to stick up for me. We all had a good laugh afterwards. Lisa After band practices were over, Jocelyn would come with Danae and I and we'd drive around and sing our hearts out to TLC. Sometimes, I'd sleep over at her house and Jocelyn would let us sleep in her room. Danae and I would sing all the time on her Karaoke machine. Our favorite song was "The Boy is Mine". Danae was such a good singer. I was always embarrassed of my voice but she always made me feel better by telling me I was pretty good. Later, when Danae started taking drum lessons, she didn't want to play in front of me because she was embarrassed and I already knew how to play. Paige M. One time during a band practice, Danae and I walked to 7-11 to get slurpees. A truck load of guys drove by and honked at us. One yelled, "I love you" and an other held up a big, pink heart. We laughed so hard. I mean, who does that? Paige M. A couple of months before Danae died, she was out driving with some friends in her new Eagle Talon. My friend and I were walking to the mall when she went by. She stopped and picked us up. Her car was a standard and she was having a hard time learning to drive it. We laughed all the way to the mall where she dropped us off. Danae was the kind of friend who always listened and made you feel better. Of all my friends, she was one of my best for that and would do anything to help me out. About 1 year before she was killed, she had lent me $60. Whenever I saw her after that, I always told her I'd pay her back if it was the last thing I did. I felt so guilty after she died because I hadn't done it yet. Finally, I brought Cheryl (Danae's mom) the money and donated it to Danae's Foundation. Paige M. Page 2