Hey Girl!

Picture Above (Andrew, Jamie, and Terese)

I (Terese) met Jamie through my boyfriend, Andrew, who was a close friend and coworker (with Elyse Connolly) of hers. I was very anxious to meet her, as Andrew said we were very similar and we’d hit it off. We tried a few times while she was living in Brooklyn, us in Queens, to get together but it never happened. Then early in 2003 we went to California to visit my family who lives in San Diego. Andrew and I met up with Jamie at a great Mexican place in Del Mar called En Fuego. We sat at the bar for a drink and some apps and ended up staying for hours, laughing, drinking, sharing stories. We bonded over our love for travel, taking pictures, Audrey Hepburn, how close we were with our family, the NY Yankees, our angst about what to make of our lives, our goal of being a successful working woman yet wanting a family more than anything, loving to talk (Andrew loved this, lol) and so on. Later on, Jamie and I would joke that it was like a successful first date for friends! We went on to see Jamie a couple of more times while she lived in California and when she came back to New York, we were able to get together a few times just hanging at our apartment, going for dinner or just drinking some wine and even fitting in a couple of Yankees games.

Really though, our friendship was one mostly by phone and email. Eventually Jamie and I talked more than Andrew and Jamie did. Sometimes I’d be on the phone with her and then pass news along or a funny story Jamie just told me and he’d say, why doesn’t she tell me this or that and she’d laugh and say through the phone, tell him to call me! Hearing Jamie’s voice, whether it be me that called her or her that called me, she’d say, HEY GIRL!, and our conversations would begin.

2007, After multiple conversations with her about love and what she had wanted (as well as listening to her advice on relationships, especially mine and Andrew’s which she helped by teaching us how to communicate better) Jamie had done it…waited and waited and finally found HER ONE! She was elated. Just with her description in one email alone, we knew she was smitten. We met Paul in September of 2007, for dinner and drinks at Stove, and more drinks and dancing at the Irish Rover in Astoria, Queens. Such a fun night! Jamie and Paul attended our wedding in December of that year and the following year we attended theirs. Early in 2010, Jamie listened to and supported us, while Andrew and I went through struggles getting pregnant and Jamie was the first person we told that we were pregnant. Soon after, Jamie and Paul were pregnant!! It was nice to be pregnant at the same time a friend was. We talked about our plans for our babies, what we were eating, how we were keeping fit and I would laugh because Jamie was so much more healthy than I, our want to make it all work with being wives and working moms, keeping the balance as best we can. John and Larkin were born 4 weeks after our daughter Lia was born. We really wanted our kids to meet each other even with the distance from NYC to NC and the costs of living let alone traveling with little ones. We finally planned for us to go to their house in Durham for a few days in Sept of 2011, but Hurricane Irene hit and our trip was cancelled. We were bummed to say the least but tried to reschedule a trip to NC later on in the year. However, life took over for all of us and it wasn’t able to happen. One thing I remember is the call where Jamie told me she and Paul were taking a weekend away in October to relax and she was so looking forward to it. So we said that in 2012 we’d make it happen. Well, in 2012, Jamie and I were both pregnant. Our babies were going to be 4 weeks apart again. We’d talk about getting together in the Fall when the babies would be a few months old and John, Larkin and Lia would really be able to play together, while we sat and drank some red wine and once again, talked about how blessed we were. So many times Jamie and I would talk about how blessed we were. We really were with families that love us, a strong partnership with the men we loved, beautiful and healthy babies, wonderful friends and careers that afforded us to actually live life – the occasional trip, a home, etc.!

Never in our wildest dreams could we imagine the call Andrew received from Dan, Jamie’s father, on the morning of August 1, letting us know of Jamie’s passing the day before. What? How could this be? I had just been texting with her a few days ago on Sunday morning. As you all know and felt, it was unbelievable and it was heart-wrenching on so many levels. So, that Friday, Andrew and I went to NC for our first visit to finally see Paul and Jamie and the beautiful family they created. It hurts us to this day to know that our first trip to see them would be missing a huge piece, Jamie, but we had to be there to see Paul, meet the kids, see the O’Brien and Kindem families and to say ‘Hey Girl’ one more time to my beautiful friend. Jamie passed away on Andrew’s birthday and our baby girl was born 4 weeks later on August 30th, Paul and Jamie’s wedding anniversary. Andrew and I will celebrate Jamie’s life on these dates, as well as throughout the year.

To us, just living life made Jamie happy. She had found true love with Paul and went on to create a beautiful life with him and we had never before seen her this happy. Jamie was insightful, thoughtful, knowledgeable, extremely involved in what she cared about. Jamie was a girl who truly loved her family and spending time with them and also was a fantastic friend. Jamie really talked from her heart, from her soul, about her feelings on things. If she felt passionately about something, you knew it. She was a great listener as well and she had a way of letting you know you were special.

Hey Girl, you are missed terribly! It doesn’t seem real some days and I want to pick up the phone and text you, call you with a question, talk about your most recent weekend at the lake house or Heels game or to talk about the kids. You’d be so proud of Paul and your families, they have shown such strength and have united in a way I cannot explain, simply beautiful! Your babies are absolutely gorgeous and although it’s not often, now I have, on occasion, bothered Paul with questions on them. I know you can see that your entire family has a lot of people looking out and praying for them every day, as well as you watching over them.

“I have learned how to live, how to be IN the world and OF the world, and not just to stand aside and watch. And I will never, never again run away from life. Or from love, either.”
– Audrey Hepburn as Sabrina

We will love and miss you always.

-Terese Cosentino (Jamie’s good friend)