#82, Tara.

She was the waitress at our Thai restaurant, the one behind our building. It was so close by, and so amazingly good! We'd really lucked out. And there she was, such a sweetie, only here a year from Thailand and with a perpetual smile on her face. Her husband was young, like her, and in the military. They had a fat son, who was 8 months old or so when we first met them. She was small, and slight, and taught us how to say 'young coconut juice' (Nat can't get enough of the stuff) in Thai, which we were told was pronounced na ma prow. That Thai place became our go-to restaurant, mainly because everything else in our neighborhood is total shite, but also because it was just consistently delicious, and seeing Tara was an added bonus. After about a year, when my birthday rolled around, she actually bought me a present: a $15 Visa gift card. i could not get over how sweet and generous and thoughtful that was. One day the place was closed (money problems), and it reopened months later under new ownership. We never saw her again, but i think of her often every time i walk by.