Lyndsey Neita Photography: The Lyndsays...?

At 23 I didn't think I would ever have to go to one of my best friend's funerals...I thought someday Lindsay and I would be racing each other in our wheel chairs...Lindsay and I had known each other since we were six years old...I remember walking around the neighborhood with my parents and seeing her playing in the yard with some other neighborhood kids...we quickly became friends...I mean we do have the same name and all, although later she would be known to most as "Spike"...we were often involved in the same things...in middle school we helped start up the "ecology club"...she was much more of a "tomboy" than I ever was, but I would like to think that a little of that rubbed off on me...she had me playing in the dirt and gross ponds, while I kept trying to convince her that it was fun to sometimes dress like a girl...one of my favorite memories of Lindsay is from 8th grade Tech class...we had an assignment to build a scale model of a house...to many this project was a bore, but Lindsay and I found it enthralling, and built our dream home...we often later talked about how we should actually build that house...as we entered high school, we made different friends, but still managed to spend countless hours together doing stage crew...we both were at home in the theater, and we were in show choir...which is when I saw Lindsay in a dress for the first time...show choir took up any free time that we could have possibly had, but that was ok...we had a blast spending Saturdays at random high schools, singing and doing crew...we collective managed stage crew as "The Lyndsays" and we balanced each other well...the only picture I took at my high school graduation was of Lindsay and I in our caps and gowns...through many tears I helped her pack for her new adventure to Ball State...I couldn't imagine what it was going to be like with her so far away...and although we didn't see each other as much after she left for school, we still talked and made it a point to see each other over the few holidays that brought her home...as I sit here writing this, so many memories pop into my head...and as hard as I try to smile as she always did, I'm teary thinking about the friend I'll have to wait so long to see again.

Senior Prom 2003...Lindsay didn't surprise many showing

up to prom in a tux...we laughed later when we looked at our pictures and realized that we looked like each other's prom dates...and just to clarify we weren't...