Stories & Thoughts

Melissa always had a thing for non popular holidays or remembrance days - one of the craziest being Talk Like a Pirate Day… But she seemed to especially love them if they had to do with history and she could use them as talking points in class or extra credit questions on a test. Everyone loved her class and usually stayed engaged because we didn’t just go through facts and dates, the dates had stories and meaning. You remembered them better that way and history became more present. She would read the Dr Seuss books and relate them to times in history, we would talk about how it felt to live through Pearl Harbor or Columbus leaving for the new world or the World Wars from the perspective of a normal life. I was always good at math so numbers were easy for me, but there are dates I don’t think I will ever forget because I can still hear her creating a story that I related to about a day that happened many years before I was even born. I can see her hand motions and the amusement in her face and even remember some of the images she would project on the board as she went along. Years after I graduated, I would still text her on these days and we would talk about how the story had changed or the new pictures and comics she had found to make the story come alive even more.

Today is one of those days. Last year, it was so soon after we had heard the news that I had to block it out and I didn’t talk about it. Every time I wrote the date, I had to hold back tears. But if she taught us anything at all, it was that history needed to be shared and the obscure moments were ones to celebrate, remember, and pass on. If not just for the fun of it to show that history isn’t just about dates and facts, but that even these small moments have meaning and lessons we can learn from all these years later.

So on this date any other year, when I woke up and read the date on my phone, I would have opened my phone and simply texted Melissa

“Remember remember the 5th of November

the gunpowder, treason, and plot

I see no reason

Why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot”

Then we would have talked about our lives and our husbands and our recent highs and lows, moving on about our day like it was any other. I don’t have anyone to text on these obscure days who appreciates it like she did, but I can pass along the memories to my husband and share with you. From now on though, I have decided that my new November 5th poem has become,

Remember remember the 5th of November

The stories and smiles and whatnot

I see no reason

Why Melissa Legare should ever be forgot.

-Meagan (Miller) Yeomans

"You are blessed if you have any true friends in life. I am thankful to have had many. Among them all, Melissa will always be one of the most faithful. We were friends at some level since elementary school, but it wasn’t until we both headed to College of Charleston that we became especially close. There was something comforting about having someone who knew the “you” you had always been in the sea of unknown faces that greets you as a college freshman. I found a safe space in her dorm room between classes. She came over to my apartment to watch umpteen episodes of TLC “stories.” We even took turns taking notes in Honors Western Civilization and finally walked across the Cistern together. Over the course of those four years, we figured out how who we had been was going to translate into who we would become. We were each other’s sounding board and launching pad into the next stage of life. She helped me prepare for my wedding, paint my counter tops (think TLC Trading Spaces), and welcome my first baby home. Above all else, I could trust Melissa, and I hope she felt the same way about me."

-Cameron Smith

I found a song, a few months ago that reminds me of Melissa. It’s called Honeybee, by the Head And The Heart. It’s the title that really reminds me of her. But the lyrics are beautiful to listen to and it’s something that always reminds me of her now. I hope that it can do the same for you.

-Maddie Pothier