“50 Shades of J”

I (Sara Lindsay) am at Camp Seafarer for a month in July/August 2011 and I get a phone call from Pete. Pete is telling me that he and Paul are going to look at some house on Lake Watauga. This is dangerous because lake Watauga is near Boone, NC. A destination that draws Pete in like “free beer night” at the local pub. Knowing this means trouble, I immediately call Jamie to get the “real” story. I come to find out Jamie was actually the one that found this house and the boys had to go see it. Long story short, we purchased the lake house with Jamie & Paul, Hap & Nan, and Jamie’s parents Dan & Maureen. Jamie and I had not even seen the house, but the fact that Jamie and Paul wanted the house gave me the confidence that we were making a smart purchase. When I finally saw our Lake cabin, I knew wonderful memories were destined to be made.

While preparing for the Kindem-O’Brien week long vacation, at our cabin, in July 2012 I found myself at Costco looking at books. I’m not typically someone that reads books; really I can’t remember the last book I read. I mean, I can tear through some magazines, but books just intimidate me. Anyways, one day I found myself at Costco and was thinking about what I needed on our Lake trip and saw an aisle with books. Seeing the books made me instantly think of Jamie because she always had a new book in her hand, and it somehow inspired me to look for one that I could take to the lake.

We get to the lake cabin and I show Jamie, I purchased a book, planing to read it on the trip. Jamie starts hysterically laughing and runs to her room. She returns with a book in her hand and it’s the very same book I have. The book is called “Fifty Shades of Grey” Yes, most ladies know this book. For the next couple of days Jamie and I are talking constantly about different scenes in the book and I find myself reading more pages than I have read in a very long time. Jamie was a much faster reader than I, but she was so encouraging. She basically pretended to be at the same point of the book. One day on the trip Jamie and I were sitting in the living room reading the book and she looked over at me and said, “I think I’m going to have to go to the bedroom for this” and we started cracking up. It probably isn’t the best book to read in front of family you inherit through marriage or maybe family in general, but we did, and we LOVED every minute of it.

While our time together at the lake was short, we made some amazing memories that I will never forget. We read, swam, rode boats, went on walks, and DANCED! We would eat dinners out on the screened in porch and take turns playing DJ on our iPhones. I’m not a big reader and I’m not very comfortable writing my thoughts. So finding the words to describe how important and how influential Jamie was in my life is very difficult. Jamie inspired me to be a better person in so many ways. I was always amazed, how she was able to find something positive out of everyone.

– Sara Lindsay Kindem (Jamie’s sister-in-law)