My friend Ian Smith (who was a year ahead of me, and was therefore not in my Grade Nine homeroom) went out with Val for a while and when they broke up, he was devastated. I mean, devastated. He listened to Depeche Mode's "Somebody" for about three weeks straight and wouldn't stop talking about her. It was sad for a while, but then it got kind of tiresome.

Val was a fun girl with a good sense of humour. Not the fastest swimmer on the beach, but always ready to laugh. Man, was she a talker. You'd set her off on some topic and she'd be ripping along twenty minutes later. She played clarinet in music class, I think. Maybe flute. I'm pretty sure it was clarinet.