Gabriella Lowhar Memorial

About Gabriella Lowhar

(May 28, 2006)
By Adam Trionfo

(This is a work in progress.)

It's difficult to begin anything like this.  I'm not out to write a history of 
Gabriella; that is something that I could not do.  The bare facts of her life 
(where she was born, who her parents were, and her child's name) are included 
in the Memorial card on the front page of this web site.  I'm not going to 
repeat them.  Instead, I'll describe Gabriella as I saw her, as I KNEW her.

How We Met
----------

I met Gabriella in 1989 when I was in a senior at Cibola High School.  I was 
seventeen and she was sixteen (she'd skipped a grade in elementary school, so 
she was in the same grade as me but she was a year younger).  Gabriella lived 
to be thirty-two, so I knew her for exactly half of her life.  It wasn't until 
I started to think about writing this "About Gabriella" a couple of months ago 
that I realized that.  It was a sobering thought.

Gabriella was in my first period English class, and I had a crush on her, but 
nothing ever became of it (not at the time, anyway).  She told me years later 
that back then she didn't even know my name and only thought of me as "Sean's 
goofy friend."

Gabriella went to Cibola until about October or November of 1989 and then she 
dropped out.  She went back to school after Christmas, in 1990, but she did not 
return to Cibola.  Instead, she went to a school called Freedom where she'd 
still be able to graduate on time (even though she had missed a few months of 
classes).  After she graduated she moved to Venice, California to live with her 
father, Eric.  I did not see Gabriella again until 1993.  
When I did see her, it was quite by accident.

In 1992 I became roommates with my friend Sean.  One afternoon, in March of 
1993, while we were hanging out together we happened to run into an old friend 
from high school named Marc.  He told us that there was going to be a party at 
his apartment that evening and that we should come.  We had nothing else to do, 
so we went.

At the time I was mostly wearing black (that hasn't changed), but I decided to 
wear a white shirt that I'd picked up at a thrift store; it had a ruffled front 
and long sleeves (sort of like a "pirate shirt").  In high school I used to 
have short, spiky hair, but in the intervening years I'd grown my hair out (I 
had a "Devil Lock;" my hair was collar length in the back, but my bangs were 
below my chin).  I dressed different too (I sort of considered myself 
"gothic").  Basically, I was still a nerd on the inside, but I did not LOOK 
like a nerd on the outside (this still holds true today).

When Sean and I got to Marc's party I saw several friends that I knew, so I 
felt pretty comfortable.  Among the friends that I knew were Tina and Dawn.  
Tina was Gabriella's best friend, and so she'd brought Gabriella along with her 
(about a month or two earlier, Gabriella had come back into town with her 
boyfriend, Scott).  I didn't know this then, but Gabriella told me later, that 
when she saw me come through the door she couldn't believe her eyes.  She said 
that I looked completely different, that I'd changed so much.  She said that I 
looked hot.  For my part, when I was saw Gabriella, I was still very attracted 
to her.

(to be continued...)