Josh had met Sarah when they were both so very young (21 and 19) and both worked at the Lloyd Center in different stores and in November they traveled together to California where Josh worked for Jeans West in San Bruno as a store manager. Having started at the Foot Locker and then Jeans West in Portland, it was the beginning of many jobs in retail over the next 20+ years. In March, he transferred to The Athlete's Foot in Cupertino as Sales Manager. In April, he threatened suicide for the first time that I can recall. I hoped his father would help him get into counseling but it didn't happen. The echoes of this conversation never reached me. How I wish now that I had sought more support at home to understand how to help Josh. There would follow many years during which he had ongoing emotional ups and downs until finally they led to his darkest moment and the end of his life.

Meanwhile, Jane was applying for graduate school and in April she also left for Europe to visit her father, returning in May. During that visit she got her second tattoo and attended a tattoo convention in Amsterdam with the family. She would only see her father one more time before he died of throat cancer in 2002. She has retained connection with her four stepsiblings in the years since but has rarely seen them in person.