"Travels with Deana" Las Vegas Travelogue by imlikeabird

My sister Deana convinced me to go to Vegas. She had a layover once, years before, and always wanted to go back. After I graduated college she asked me if I wanted to meet up in Vegas. She lived in San Francisco, I lived in Kansas City, and we decided to go every year for a sister's trip. We had a blast, seeing the sites, looking through shops, trying on jewelry we could never afford. We always used this time to make our future plans and talk about our lives, changes we wanted to make & our goals for the future. The last time I ever saw her was in Vegas, July 4, 2001. She died unexpectedly & very young just a few months later. I am so grateful for this town because my best memories of Deana are here.

When Deana was still alive, I had a strange dream that I witnessed a murder and went into the witness relocation program. I went to Vegas and waited for Deana, knowing she would know to find me there. Deana got a kick out of that dream. A few months after Deana's death, I reached a really low point, not believing that she was really dead. I drove to the airport and flew out to Vegas that day. Of course she wasn't there. I went to every place we'd ever been to together. So many memories came flooding back to me. I wrote them down that day, knowing we would make no new memories, I didn't want to forget the ones I had. I must have seemed a strange sad little person in Vegas that day, tormenting myself this way. It was unbelievable to me that Vegas could still be there, that the foundains were still flowing, people walking by oblivious. Didn't they know that Deana was dead?

Deana and I went to Vegas 3 times, a total of nine days. I made a scrapbook called Nine Days in Vegas about our travels there. I didn't know it at the time, but those nine days would be the great highlight of my life.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

I have gone to Vegas 4 times with my husband since Deana died. I didn't know if I could go back, but everytime I do I only have happy memories of Deana. Adam only got to meet Deana once, briefly, before she died. I think he's learned more about her in Vegas than from anything else. Every place we go there's a Deana story. I read a book once called A Place in the World Called Paris. I think now there's a place in the world called Vegas, and Deana's there somewhere.

Deana at the Tropicana pool

From Deana's grave...

Still we go through this journey hand in hand, if only in the silent memory of God.