I Donated My Late Daughter's Prom Dress Twenty Years Ago – Last Week, Someone Knocked on My Door Wearing It
"I promise."
***
The next morning, Teresa left with Tanya, Phoebe, and another classmate. The hike was supposed to be their last quiet day together before prom and graduation.
Holly had planned to join them, but she woke with a fever.
"Take pictures of everything," she told Teresa over the phone.
The hike was supposed to be their last quiet day together.
"Even the boring trees?"
"Especially those."
I handed Teresa a light jacket.
"The weather report says rain."
"We'll be back before then."
She kissed my cheek.
"We'll be back before then."
"I'll be home for dinner."
Those were the last words she ever said to me.
***
By the time they drove home, rain was falling hard enough to blur the road. Tanya was driving, while Phoebe and Teresa sat in the back.
Less than 20 minutes from home, the hillside gave way.
Mud and water struck the car and pushed it through the guardrail into a flooded ravine.
Those were the last words she ever said to me.
Tanya and Phoebe survived.
One classmate's body was recovered the next morning. Teresa was never found.
Sheriff Kahn told me the river had probably carried her away.
The search continued for two weeks before the water became too dangerous.
***
Months later, Teresa was declared dead, and I buried an empty casket.
The hardest part was coming home to the prom dress hanging from her bedroom door, waiting for a night that had passed without her.
Tanya and Phoebe survived.
For years, I could barely enter that room. Every spring, I stood in the doorway and wondered how Teresa would have worn her hair.
Then my therapist, Dr. Kim, asked me to write her a letter.
"Not a journal entry," she said. "Write to Teresa."
I wrote that I loved her, that I would have entered the water, and that I would have traded every year I had left for one more minute.
Most of all, I apologized for not being there and for letting her die alone.
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