Sonya Poulin was someone special to me during our time at FGBI. It started with the Christmas Banquet in our first year. It was suggested to me, by someone who turned down my invitation, that there was a very good possibility that if I asked Sonya, she would say yes. When I did ask Sonya to go to the banquet with me, I did not get the expected affirmative answer. “I will think about it,” was her response. That stung a bit. After a few days, she did say “yes” that she would go with me. Whew! The night of the banquet, everyone looked splendid, all dressed up for the event. Sonya was a little nervous and early on she knocked over a glass of water and some of it got onto her dress. She was mortified and retreated to a washroom to recover and dry off as best she could. When she came back to the table, I tried to ease her mind about the spill. We have all done it ourselves at least once. The rest of the banquet went fine and Sonya relaxed. Afterwards, we went down to the pond where some people went skating on the ice. Sonya and I didn’t have skates so we kept to the side of the pond. Sonya decided to be playful and threw a snowball at me. In the dark, I didn’t see it coming until it was too late and it hit me in the side of my face. Water and snow flooded my left eye. For a minute or two, I wasn’t sure if my contact lens was still in my eye or if it had been washed away. Sonya was mortified once again! Fortunately, the lens was still in place, so no harm done, but it took a while before Sonya accepted my reassurances. Poor girl. The evening did not go the way she had hoped. For my part, I have loved her ever since and always held her in high regard. In our second year, we served together at the Grad Banquet with no incidents. She died before I got to tell her just how much she meant to me. I still regret not telling her sooner!