WEBVTT - Erin 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.639 Inside a fellowship hall at a church in Petersburg, Virginia. 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:16.040 About fifty to a hundred people sit at long folding 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:22.040 tables eating lunch. The church serves a community meal every Wednesday. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.920 On this day, a teenager who volunteers at the church 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.680 is making her way around the table, saying hello to 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:33.640 the guests. I'll call her Naomi. Naomi's not her real name, 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.680 which she wanted to keep private. I just walk around 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.440 and shake hands the star small toe, you know. For myself. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:42.880 I love the one people came in with children because 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:43.960 you know, I get to pull you with her and 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.120 what talks to things like that. She wants everyone to 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:51.080 feel welcome, regardless of the circumstances that brought them to 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:53.400 a meal at a church hall in the middle of 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:58.240 the week. It's the spring of two thousand thirteen, three 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.360 years before the incident at Camp Summit. Naomi is a 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.360 nineteen year old college student at Virginia State University. The 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:09.880 church is near campus. We talked about it, you know, Jesus, 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.480 you know, um asking everybody you know, if you know, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.880 have a church home and things like that, not so 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:18.840 much to recruit them on sut of church because we 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:20.400 weren't member that the church. I say it was just 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.760 about and saying she especially loves being a part of 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.560 the church choir. She's at her happiest when she's singing. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:30.840 It's as if music is her direct connection to Heaven, 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:43.560 we arning love. As she makes her way from person 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.480 to person, she spots a woman sitting by herself. Naomi 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.080 has never seen her before, and she's hard to miss. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:55.080 This is a traditionally African American congregation. The visitor is 0:01:55.080 --> 0:02:03.560 a white woman with short brown hair. She's wearing a 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.600 sun dress, no makeup, and she seems well, she seems 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.800 like somebody he's having a bad day. She kind of 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.040 say it. She looked like she was out of it. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:14.840 We were there to witness, we were there to help, 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.440 so you know, I took it upon myself to be 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.080 time to reach out. The absolute first words that she 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.639 said to me was giving me her name. She said 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.560 my name was Sarah. So that was the first thing 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.760 that she said to me. And she confides she's pregnant. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.400 As Sarah eats her lunch, she tells Naomi that her 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.679 boyfriend is emotionally abusive to her, claims the baby isn't his. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.280 She says she's embarrassed to be in a church pregnant 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.560 and unmarried. So immediately, like I said, my right off 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.320 went off, because so is it somebody who really needs help? 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:52.520 This somebody really probably just needs somebody. Naomi is deeply religious, 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.840 and in that moment, she knows Sarah needs her. It's 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.400 why God brought them together. She was, you know, along 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.960 by herself, and I felt like, oh, I'm a helper. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.519 After the meal is done, they say goodbye and exchange numbers. 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.919 A couple of days later, Naomi sends a text, how 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.840 are you in the baby doing? Sarah answers it was 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:17.919 super long. All her messages were always long. She could 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.799 never send on one liner. It was always parag long, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.600 long paragrams in visceral detail. Sarah tells Naomi that she's 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.359 having morning sickness and that her boyfriend isn't being supportive. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:36.320 Naomi feels for her. As the weeks passed, Naomi says 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:39.880 she loves babies and that she herself has been adopted, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:44.120 and Sarah says, hey, I'm adopted too. They start to 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:48.800 exchange texts every day. All day. I would always wake 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.640 up two messages from her. No, you know whatever, time. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.040 It was even if I slept to seven, I wouldever, 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:55.920 you know, if I sleep seven and eight, wake up 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.000 is a message. It started coming in like four o'clock 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.760 or something. So from then she protects me first, and 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.200 it was always um about the baby, about you know 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.120 how her night was, you know, things of their nature. 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:10.800 Several times when I'll be going about my day as 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.000 a student and if I take too long to text her, 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.360 I would get like messages. They meet up a couple 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.279 of times a week. She begins to reveal more to 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.800 Naomi about her life, and it's weighty stuff for a 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.320 college student to take in. Sarah says that she had 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:29.520 been raised in foster care that should run away and 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.440 been hauled back every time, even raped. She was never 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.400 interested in my life story. So at a certain point 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.880 it was like I just shut up because her life 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.839 stuck way more than mine. So let me just help her. 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.120 You know, everything she went through was a hundred a 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.719 million percent worse. I'm a Christian. I told her so 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.279 many times I don't have enough changes, and so see 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:52.200 how how many times I told her that she can 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:56.160 be sure God knows her name. As Sarah and Naomi's 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.479 friendship deepens. She starts getting texts from Mason, the a friend. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.440 She portrayed him as a jerk, but he would text 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:04.840 me and be like it was almost like he was 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:06.679 the sweetest do ever. So I didn't know what to believe. 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:10.560 So it was real confusing. That July, Naomi takes Sarah 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.359 out to dinner for her birthday, to a seafood restaurant. 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.400 It's a stretch for her student budget, but she wants 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.120 her new friend to feel special. But even before they order, 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.200 Sarah says she's feeling nauseated at the smell of the 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.400 fish and races to the women's room. She owys in 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.479 the bedroom to the last all the big one, and 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:32.000 immediately like you also weren't even she's jagging and it's 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.640 totally hugging and totally and I'm confided her the best 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.680 I can, because I mean it was horrible and you know, 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:41.840 she's all read and she's struggling. They leave without eating, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.880 but it's just as well since it wasn't Sarah's birthday anyway. 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:51.359 She was actually born in December. A month later, in 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.440 a barrage of rapid fire texts, Sarah tells Naomi that 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.640 she's miscarried. She had been trying to reach Naomi the 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.520 whole time she was in the stress, but Naomi was 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.920 away from her phone. I feel horrible because the way 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:06.680 that she has portrayed herself to be and somebody who 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:11.039 has nobody, her baby father, Mason, is a piece of trash. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:15.120 She has abandonment issues and emotional issues. So here's somebody 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.600 who has nobody's never had anybody, and she miscarried and 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:20.440 I wasn't there for her. I'm like the only friend 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:22.520 that I knew of in the world who was just like, 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:24.640 really really there for She never had a mom, so 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:26.640 she had the opportunity to be a mother, but she 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:28.640 lost it. So I cried for all that I forgot 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:30.600 crossfall those reasons because I know how much you mean 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:33.560 tour Um. Not having a mother, wanted to be a 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:35.560 mother meant a lot to her. So I cried to that. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.359 I cried because I wasn't there for he, and I 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.359 just my heart went out to work. I just I 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:44.040 was devastated. In September of two thousand thirteen, the brother 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.000 of one of Naomi's good friends is killed. Her friend 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:51.520 asked Naomi to sing at the funeral, but the day 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.520 of the service, Sarah is having a meltdown something about Mason. 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:01.400 She sits in Naomi's car sobbing. Nao Me misses the funeral. 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:14.320 Sarah is soon expecting again. She seems to relish the 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:18.400 role of a pregnant person in trouble. The second pregnancy 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.560 appears just a month later, but Naomi's young and doesn't 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.320 think twice about it. Sarah proudly shows her the ultrasound, 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.880 She rubs her belly and talks to the baby. Naomi 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:32.480 vows to be there for her this time. She absolutely 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:34.800 loved being pregnant. The attention she got from me was 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.800 top not It's as if Naomi has to constantly show 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.640 Sarah what a good friend she is. From crisis to crisis, 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.440 My life revolved around her, like for you every day 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:48.640 from the moment I woke up. I'll put it that way, 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:50.760 because of course, when I was sleep I can't answer, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.280 but when a moment I woke up, it was um. 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.720 To be Sarah's friend is to be overwhelmed with one 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.960 emotionally draining situation after or another, no time to really 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.840 stop and reflect on her unbelievable space of bad luck. 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:10.440 A few months later, in January of two thousand fourteen, 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.760 Naomi gets a text from Sarah saying that she's gone 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:19.480 to the bathroom and seen a lot of blood. Naomi panics, Yeah, 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.040 I was scared because, like I said, I didn't want it. 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.640 I didn't want it to mister. I didn't want it 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:24.720 to be nothing like that, because like I said, I 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.520 saw it to go through the first time, and then 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:29.360 she also played the whole Mason blames her so the 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.520 baby being you know, she claimed he used to call 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.640 her murderer. Sarah tells Naomi that she's going to the 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:40.760 hospital and then one word messages pop up on Naomi's phone, 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:47.800 scared blood. She tells Naomi that she's on her way 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.400 to Southside Hospital. Naomi and another friend jump in her 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.400 car and dashed to meet Sarah there, but when they 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.679 get to the e R, the front desk says that 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.400 no one has come in with a possible miscarriage. She 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.360 spells Sarah's last name for the guy behind the desk, 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:08.840 the lashman, and watches as he types it into the system. 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:19.880 He looks up nothing. Naomi is confused. She sents Sarah 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:25.200 a text Southside Hospital with a question mark minutes passed 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:30.920 and Sarah does not respond. The silence is deafening, and 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:33.319 then it just that's when it just hit me, waitness, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.160 she's nothing to me. That's like that had to be 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.480 the only huge that may have been a moment that 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.480 you know, God decided to show me because it nothing 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.560 else may say. I think it was just meant for 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:46.200 me to know right there in that moment, for whatever 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.480 reason me doing that, it was just it was just 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:50.120 meant for me to know the end that she was 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.040 lying to me. Naomi asks her why she lied about 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.240 going to the hospital. I never heard from R again. 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.800 I promised you I ain't hear nothing else. She said nothing. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.240 It's when I asked her why she died, she said 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:09.000 nothing else. Naomi gradually realizes that nothing Sarah told her 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:12.920 had been real for years. She tries to process what happened, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:17.199 how her emotions had been toyed with, how she missed 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.120 a funeral for someone she cared about over a lie. 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.440 How could she believed all of it, all of Sarah's 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.959 stories for so long. She was finally starting to put 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.960 the ordeal out of her mind, until the day she 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.800 learned that she was not the only one and all 0:10:34.840 --> 0:10:38.720 the feelings of betrayal came rushing back, and I was 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.320 also like, Okay, so the other people here who you know? 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:43.640 She made them feel like she made them feel like 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:45.760 she made me feel And I just I didn't get it. 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.760 I didn't understand, like, how one person, how one what? 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.360 What did she get out of it? I realized it 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.200 was a whole bunch of other people. I was like, WHOA, 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.960 She'd been busy. A year and a half after Sarah 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.640 vanished from nay Amy's life, she turned up at Camp Summit, 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.960 the place she meant Bethany. But Bethany and the other 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:10.720 camp staff weren't the only one shocked. The day that 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:15.160 Sarah rose from her wheelchair and disappeared, there was one 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.120 more person, and her life was about to be turned 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:25.199 upside down. I'm Laura Belle. You're listening to Sympathy Pains. 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:37.160 This is episode two. Aaron. In two thousand five, a 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:41.360 full decade before Sarah arrived as a camper at Camp Summit, 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:45.000 she volunteered to be a counselor at a similar place 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:49.360 in southern California, a summer camp where people with disabilities 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:55.800 could fully enjoy the outdoors. At the time, she was 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.240 a junior in college. One of the campers that year 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:04.120 was named Aaron Johnson. At twenty three, Aaron and Sarah 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.760 were close to the same age. Aaron was born three 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.600 months premature, weighing just two pounds. She has cerebral palsy, 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:17.000 which affects her ability to speak and move. Good says 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.680 that I had only me worse today. Aaron gets around 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.120 with a wheelchair and lives in a boarding care home 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:28.560 in southern California. She talks warmly about her childhood surrounded 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.800 by great friends and parents who doated on her. I 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:38.760 is very outgoing, compassionate about a lot. I've been told 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:42.440 they'm very giving and very loving on Sundays. I'm not 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.920 so sure that people who always tell me that's what 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:50.880 I and I love psychology and dying two people and 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.760 how they work. She first went to camp in two 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.960 thousand four. She was a little scared at first, but 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:02.160 the anxiety soon evaporated. The camp is about an hour 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:04.920 and a half from Los Angeles in the San Bernardino 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:09.760 National Forest, with towering trees and panoramic views of the mountains. 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:17.320 A camper people with disabilities. It's very inclusive because out 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.880 in the real world, like like a videos. Aaron tells 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.000 me that it camps like this, a bond forms between 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.680 counselor and camper that other people might not fully understand. 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.679 There's a deep trust that comes from someone else tending 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.440 to those things you need daily. If you disabled, people 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:38.400 that take care of you, and they take care of 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:42.680 you well, and they genuinely treat you like they care 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.439 about you other than physically caring for you, you tend 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:51.959 to really admire them very quickly, because you can be 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:56.880 in situations where there are people who maybe don't take 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.240 care of you the best. The camp was free being. 0:14:00.960 --> 0:14:04.880 Aaron really loved feeding and grooming the horses. The second 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.280 year she went to camp, in two thousand five, she 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:13.040 meant a new counselor named Sarah. Do you remember your 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:17.439 first meeting? Oh, yeah, very well. She's very very quiet. 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:24.320 It took her about ever the first saying on her 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.360 I thought she's good to me because she was very quiet, 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.920 very like drawn day shy. She talked about her family, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:35.560 saying that both her parents were doctors. Aaron remembers one 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:40.640 thing that really stood out Sarah's eyes, the bluest eyes. 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.120 One evening, a couple of days into camp, it was 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.320 casino night. Aaron was in the recreation hall. She felt 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.440 awkward because she couldn't manage the games by herself. Seeing 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:56.280 Aaron looking uncomfortable, a staff member asked if she needed help. 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.400 She said, Sarah over Aaron and Sarah hid it off 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:05.480 right away. She wanted to go in all my antivities 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.160 with me. When I couldn't sleep in the middle of 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:13.080 the night, I was with her, which she couldn't sleeve. 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.920 She came to me. We always walked back to the 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:21.840 cabinet after meals together. People used to joke that escessially 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.880 that first year, that wish she was I was, and 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.640 vice versa, like if you could find one of us, 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.080 you found the other one. When the counselors took breaks, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.600 Sarah would come find Aaron. When it came time for 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:40.080 Aaron to wash her hair, Sarah instantly volunteered. When Aaron 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:43.280 would change from her wheelchair to the bed, Sarah would 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.880 be by her side. They had a connection. They did 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.400 fun things like play sports. No quite a few people 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:57.880 that's show have pretty decent relation to the people that 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.440 have been their counselors in the hat vice for so 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:06.320 with the campers, especially if the campers are fully mentally 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.600 aware and everything like that. It can be very bonding 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:14.240 and kind of just brings you together and kind of 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:18.280 just forms of friendship that tends to stay, if not 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.120 for the rest of her life, for a room all time. 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.360 At the end of the week, it came time to 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.080 say goodbye. Sarah walked with Aaron to the parking lot 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.840 where her parents were waiting by the car. It was 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:41.040 very hard for us emotionally to leave. She was crying. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:46.000 Aaron introduced Sarah to her parents, rolled back closer and 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:49.320 I said, Mom, this is Sarah. Can we keep her? 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:55.280 And my mom kind of get Golden said sure. They 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.440 did keep Sarah in their hearts, if not their home. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.600 The French a blasted another ten plus years, and Aaron 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:09.560 got way more than she ever imagined. After their tearful 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.119 departure in the parking lot, Aaron went home. When she 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.560 opened up her bags to unpack, she found a surprise. 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.680 Aaron had told Sarah that the combination of peanut butter 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.560 and chocolate was her favorite candy, but Sarah had told 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.800 Aaron that she had a severe peanut allergy and couldn't 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:31.679 get near anything like that throughout my suit. In my 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:35.720 purse in my bag, the peanut butter white up lady 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:41.159 said a regularly. She thought, wow, Sarah risked anaphylactic shock 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.280 just to make her happy. The camp was within driving 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:48.760 distance of Aaron's house, so she went to see Sarah occasionally, 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.320 each time with an emotional parting. Until Sarah had to 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:57.159 return to college in Illinois. Aaron learned more about Sarah's life, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:03.720 and it was interesting. Did she tell you anything about 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:09.480 her childhood? She had said that she had been playing 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:12.960 boarding school when she was staying because her parents wanted 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:19.000 her to be a competitive skier, an Olympic skier. In fact, 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:25.160 her Olympic career was supposedly stopped, so she was going 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.600 to be on the Olympic ski team. But then she 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:34.879 got ebola. Yes, that was Sarah's first big lie to Aaron, 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.680 after a series of smaller embellishments about her childhood. It 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.560 was in September of two thousand five. Sarah had just 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.800 returned to college. One day, she sent Aaron a message 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.600 saying that she felt nauseated and had a high fever. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.160 She was heading to the doctor. Once she got there, 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.720 she was immediately admitted for an infection with the abola virus. Well, 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.200 I would imagine it was kind of shocking on your end. 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:08.600 Supposedly there was this outbreaking St. Louis because of these 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.640 monkeys they had they sected it at school, and Sarah's 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.280 telling she was working at a lab dissecting monkeys infected 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:20.440 with ebola and somehow she got infected. This was before 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:25.200 the sweeping outbreaks in Africa dominated headlines. Aaron had never 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.919 heard of ebola and really didn't think to google it. 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.520 She just knew it sounded horrible. Besides, she loved Sarah 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:37.280 and thought Sarah loved her, so she wasn't preoccupied with skepticism, 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:42.359 just worry. And then Sarah told her that she wouldn't 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:44.800 be able to contact her for a while because the 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.800 doctors were putting her into a coma so her body 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.880 could better battle the infection. But Aaron kept getting updates 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:56.520 about Sarah's condition from Sarah's little sister, Gabby. Her kid's 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.520 sister also happened to be disabled. She used to wheelchair 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:05.200 because she had a rare inherited neuromuscular condition called spinal 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:10.480 muscular atrophy or s M. A. Gabby sent messages to 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.960 Aaron saying that Sarah was still unconscious in the hospital. 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.720 They spoke on the phone, having conversations about how worried 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:22.680 they were. This went on for five weeks, and then 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.840 what happens at the end of that five weeks the 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:34.080 week Sarah, I've had the coma and Sarah has lost 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:40.560 a good amount ror hearing because of the boy. She 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.640 was talking to Gabby one day and Gabby suddenly got 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:47.000 another call and she goes out, it's Sarah. Do you 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:50.800 wanna Gabby asked if Aaron wanted a three way call 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.200 so they could all talk. Aaron was thrilled. She hadn't 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.840 spoken to Sarah since she had woken up from the coma. 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.399 So Aaron was on a call thinking that she was 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:04.560 speaking to both Sarah and her sister Gabby, but of 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:09.680 course Sarah and Gabby were one and the same. That's amazing. 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:17.159 So she pulled off a conversation where she's herself and 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:22.160 another person in the same conversation. It's not the only 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:33.800 time that takes a lot of discipline. In January of 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:37.320 two thousand and six, in Aaron's world, Sarah was out 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.159 of the coma, but she had complications from ebola. Not 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.600 only was her hearing damaged, she now used a wheelchair 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:49.399 because of the neurological complications from the infection. She told 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:53.119 Aaron it was Gian Beret syndrome, an autoimmune reaction that 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:57.520 actually can follow a viral infection, although it's rare. And 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:02.520 then tragedy struck, Sarah told Aaron that Gabby had died 0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:07.919 of pneumonia. To Aaron, Gabby was real. She texted with her, 0:22:08.080 --> 0:22:10.920 talked to her, felt close to her because they both 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:15.159 faced the challenges of an inaccessible world as wheelchair users. 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:20.280 With Aaron's big, bottomless heart, she loved Gabby. She was 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.920 her best friend's little sister. It was very hard. It 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.639 felt like I actually lost someone that was a member 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.960 of my family. And she played the part very very 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.800 well on the grieving big sister. She played it so well. 0:22:36.920 --> 0:22:39.679 Sarah said that she was having a hard time getting 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.440 over Gabby's death. So in March of two thousand and six, 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:48.399 Sarah came to Aaron's house for spring break. Sir, he 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:53.480 came to a house under the pretense that she could 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:58.600 not deal with her little sisters death unless she saw me, 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:03.360 because I was in person understand how much that she 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:08.800 loved her sister, and she knew that her sister like 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:12.600 that too. Sarah was good at that. You're the only 0:23:12.720 --> 0:23:17.840 one who really understands. Sarah arrived at Aaron's house using 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:21.560 a wheelchair. They talked and hung out while Aaron's parents 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:24.400 tried to spoil them to make them feel better. They 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:30.720 grieved over Gabby. Aaron's grief was genuine. Sometime after springbreak, 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:34.920 Sarah told Aaron that she had recovered from her ebola complications. 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:37.840 After all she had gone through, she could walk again, 0:23:38.480 --> 0:23:41.399 and she wanted to return to the camp as a counselor. 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:45.120 So a year after they first met, Aaron and Sarah 0:23:45.160 --> 0:23:49.720 were back together again. At the camp. Everyone knew like 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:56.160 Sarah and I were insipable, so they put us together. 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:00.640 The two of them had another great summer and returned 0:24:00.680 --> 0:24:04.000 to Illinois for her senior year of college. But soon 0:24:04.080 --> 0:24:09.119 after going back, Sarah had news she was pregnant. Aaron 0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:11.880 didn't know it then, but it would be the first 0:24:12.240 --> 0:24:17.920 of many. None of Sarah's pregnancies were ever no. Sarah 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:20.320 told Aaron that she had briefly dated a guy who 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:22.800 was a friend of Gabby's. He was out of the picture, 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:27.000 but Sarah was pregnant with twins. One of the twins died, 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:30.800 but the surviving baby had a heart condition, so he 0:24:30.920 --> 0:24:35.440 had surgery in utero and was born premature that spring. 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:40.280 His name was Noah. Sarah said that she wanted Aaron 0:24:40.520 --> 0:24:44.679 to be his godmother. He ended up being okay, answer 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:50.439 rising that at least she brought him home. He grew. 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:55.800 He needed a couple of years go by. Sarah sends 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:59.359 her snapshots as he's growing up. He's in struggling health, 0:24:59.560 --> 0:25:02.840 and eventually Sarah tells Aaron that he's going to need 0:25:02.840 --> 0:25:07.119 a heart transplant. Aaron worries about him deeply. This is 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:10.600 her godson, after all, she refers to him as her nephew, 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:14.840 and he had a heart transplant. One day in two 0:25:14.880 --> 0:25:17.359 thousand eight, Aaron was on the phone with a friend 0:25:17.400 --> 0:25:20.919 and Sarah tried to call. Aaron didn't answer, figuring that 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:24.440 she would call Sarah back later, and then the frantic 0:25:24.560 --> 0:25:28.000 texts began. Noah was sick. She was rushing him to 0:25:28.040 --> 0:25:33.040 the hospital. Aaron immediately called back, stricken with worry. Sarah 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:36.000 told her that he was rejecting his new heart. He 0:25:36.040 --> 0:25:41.919 was tethered to machines and then he died. Once again. 0:25:42.359 --> 0:25:46.200 Aaron had to mourn someone she loved, and she even thought, 0:25:46.440 --> 0:25:51.639 why does this keep happening? After that, for the rest 0:25:51.640 --> 0:25:54.800 of their friendship, there was not a time that Sarah 0:25:54.840 --> 0:25:58.639 was not the mother of several young children or pregnant. 0:25:59.240 --> 0:26:04.800 It was always multiples. And then my had I question that, 0:26:04.920 --> 0:26:06.800 and she would I don't know if I want to 0:26:06.800 --> 0:26:12.840 say smart enough, but she knew enough to have answers 0:26:12.880 --> 0:26:17.360 for everything before you or who else she was talking 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:22.159 to was able to question them. Sarah was Aaron's best friend, 0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:26.119 and she considered all these babies her own. She even 0:26:26.119 --> 0:26:29.360 referred to them as her nieces and nephews. In two 0:26:29.359 --> 0:26:32.320