Story Pitch

Story pitch:

I remember the day I came home to find Kari Monley in our kitchen, home alone with the dogs, watching over them until our family cam back from vacation. I just just come back from a road trip visiting my friends and was going to fly down to Florida the next day to meet up with my family.

She seemed sweet, happy, had so much to say... I wondered if it was because she had been home alone for the past few days and didn't have anyone to talk to. I spent the night at home with her before I left the next morning, and we got to talking. This woman had lived one of the most insane life stories I had ever heard. And here she was in an oversized tshirt and sweatpants sitting in my kitchen, having been connected with us through one of my mom's friends because she was looking for short-term work. We started when she was a teenager: stories of her time working on a massive shipping boat with all men, nearly circumnavigating the state of Michigan. I think she tried going to school but realized the rigid academic structure wasn't quite for her. Traveled to Belgium, found work painting apartments, ran a half marathon there, and the day she was scheduled to leave, decided she wasn't ready. She stayed there, working and traveling and learned French from scratch. When she ran out of money she came home, fell in love with a pilot, got seriously injured and burned or something, started a career at Whole Foods where she met my Mom's friend Sally while finding her diherrea medication. Moved to Colorado, then to Ohio, making so many friends and having so many experiences. She was like a rockstar to me. Living in the moment, following her heart. I remember telling her about my life as an athlete, my plans to travel to Thailand and how full of awe and supportive she was.

But I also remember little glimpses of her emotional instability, starting one night when I was babysitting for Sally and she was running around the house trying to book a plane ticket to Colorado because Kari needed help. There were times when Sally had no idea where Kari was or what she was doing until she would call from a pay phone somewhere. Last I heard she was living in a halfway house in Cleveland and committed suicide.