Val (Val Kepka when we met) was a very good friend of mine starting in high school. She was a year younger than I, and we became friends while swimming in Sioux City, Iowa on the West High School swim team. Since learning that Val passed away I have had a flood of memories about her - all good memories. I will do my best to tell a few stories which stand out in my mind. I had known of Val for a few years before she started high school, since we were both on a local AAU swim team called The Mariners. I remember her then as a kid with a chipped front tooth and glasses. I never learned why her tooth remained chipped for a few years, but I do remember being witness to her getting her tooth fixed, her exchanging glasses for contacts and then her blossoming into a beautiful girl. In fact, a particular memory stands out. It is summer and Val is at the Riverside Park outdoor pool where I am a lifeguard. I am not positive when exactly this occurred but I think it was when I was home from my freshman year of college and Val had just finished high school. Her hair was completely golden (swimmers tend to have some gold in their hair), she was in incredibly good shape and she was in a bikini. She was stunning. So stunning that I believe it was difficult for anyone at that pool not to watch her. There is a pretty good movie from years ago called Flamingo Kid. Matt Dillon is in it. See it some time if you can. There is an iconic scene in that movie where Janet Jones (who later married Wayne Gretzky) is in a bathing suit climbing onto a diving board. Matt Dillon is watching her. He is stunned because she is so beautiful. I remember Val as having fun, diving. Do I mix up the movie and the memory in terms of the diving board after all these years? I am not sure but I doubt it. I was not the only one who witnessed what I saw that summer. Val visited me two summers ago, while she was in the Midwest on a bicycling trip (I am so thankful she visited). I mentioned to my brother that I had seen Val. My brother was younger than both Val and I. My brother recounted: Do you remember that summer when Val was just unbelievably beautiful? My brother remembers everything while I forget much of what he remembers, but in this instance I was able to say, Yes, I certainly remember that. Because Val truly was that memorably stunning. And since Flamingo Kid was a 1984 movie, Val got there before Janet Jones did. Another memory stands out. Mariners practices were at North High School and both Val and I continued to swim AAU outside of the high school swim season. We took turns driving the round trip for swim practice. Val drove a VW beetle. It had a terrible heating system. Sioux City Winters are very very cold. Maybe five minutes before our destination the car would get lukewarm. That was OK on the way to swim practice but brutal on the way home with wet hair. My long hair would freeze while riding in that car. I have one of the worst systems I know of in terms of getting cold and I have gotten hypothermic a few times. The VW beetle Val drove was so cold, yet what I remember about those drives when I reminisce is laughing. Laughing and enjoying the camaraderie. It is a real testament to her sense of humor. Another story. This one is about the work ethic and drive of the young Val Kepka. Val and I swam on a high school swimming team which was not too good. I cannot say for sure as it has been a long time, but I seem to remember one year our team being ranked 45th out of 47 in teams in the state or something like that. I was a top swimmer in the state but it was a challenge. My freshman year I trained in a lane by myself, swimming against the clock. Not a good way to train. Val arrived on the team after my freshman year. What a relief. What a breath of fresh air. A couple of other swimmers also arrived who could train in the lane with Val and I. It was great. By my senior year I witnessed Val blossoming yet again. I was swimming hard to try to defend my state championship from the year before (100 breastroke). Val began to excel in the breastroke. She pushed me hard that year. She just got better and better. By the time we went to the state meet she seemingly came from nowhere and placed sixth in the state! I found a photo from that meet. Val is on the podium. What she did was so impressive. I put another photo on the share a photo page. It is of our high school swim team and for some odd reason we are gathered in a greenhouse. Val is on the far right with her golden hair. I am just to the left of Val, looking over at her. I am not surprised that I am standing next to Val. By the look on my face, I think I am probably saying something to make her laugh. Val and I were both ambitious and travelled out of our comfort zones and left Sioux City. Sadly, we did not see much of each other beyond our college years. I saw Val twice in the past thirty years. Both times Val was so nice and visited me in Illinois. On the first visit, she brought Emily who was a toddler. I put one more photo on the photo page - Val with Emily and my three young kids at my home in Illinois. The next time Val visited I was an empty nester. I was so looking forward to visiting Val in New York when my husband and I plan to travel on an extended car trip once he retires. I am so sad I will not get to see Val again. After Val visited me two summers ago I wrote Val a letter where I told her how happy I was to know that she had achieved such a good, happy life. A wonderful husband, two wonderful children and a career she enjoyed. I stand by what I said in that letter. I am so happy that my friend had all those things. So very happy. Val showed me friendship and love and I will forever be grateful that she was in my life. - Janet Abel(Janet Ware when Val and I met)