24 | NÉE DUNN | TRAVEL NURSE | ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
________________________________________________
ALARM CLOCK | 5:07AM
WAKE UP SONG | We've Got History - Mitchell Tenpenny
FACE WASH | CeraVe Foam Facial Cleanser
WORKOUT | Long Run or Gym Circuit Routine
KEYCHAINS | Pressed Sunflower, Resin 'S', Dog Tag
SCRUB COLOR | Plum
COFFEE ORDER | Triple Iced Shaken Espresso, Whole Milk
CLOCK-IN TIME | 7:00AM
__________________________________________________________
OFF MARKET4 bd | 3.5 ba | 3,288 sqft
Classic architecture meets modern styles with this cozy family home. Boasting 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a sunroom, open floor plan and gorgeous hilltop vantage points. Plenty of room for MIL suite or an expansion. Updated kitchen, central AC / heating, mudroom, 2 car garage, newly renovated and well maintained.__________________________________________________________
MARRY HER CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART"The prediction wasn't off, technically! It just took a few extra years to come true.
If we're swearing this doesn't leave this room, I thought Theo was
it for me. He was this silly, shining light in our heart of Alaska, and somehow he found a soft spot for me. We met when we were kids - he was on my brother's hockey team, and I was smitten from the start, tugging on my dad's sleeve to take me to practice just to watch the cute boy who'd knocked one of his teeth out after a fight. When he finally got that replaced, and mustered up the courage to hand me a flower one day after a game, I swear I turned bright red and stayed that way the rest of the day. From there it turned into giggling phone calls and holding hands in middle school, never doing much to name it until he called me his girlfriend to the new boy who'd taken an interest in me when we were 12. Lucky for him, it stuck. We started coordinating cheesy dance routines for our middle school socials, rooting for each other at hockey games and cheer competitions, spending summers skiing and running out in the wide, open Alaskan midnight sun.
High school we hit our stride. Theo grew out his hair and had started training a little more seriously, while I lost the gangly, awkward body I'd been trying to figure out. I can still remember all the new girls looking at him and Ollie, the tall, suddenly
very attractive twins, and there I was tucked proudly under Theo's arm. It was my first true feeling of being popular, but even more this true feeling of being so
loved. We never fought, never wavered - it was this sweet series of texts and calls and laughing and making out when no one could catch us. I remember I told my mom once that I'd marry him, mooning over something or other, and she'd looked at me like I was half crazy and half right.
That was until his parents died.
It was horrible, watching him lose so much so instantly.
So young to have to deal with something like that - I barely knew what to say, much less to do, relying on my parents for guidance on how to comfort and support them as they spiraled. Tried to plan funerals as teenagers. Watched a home become a memory they'd rather forget.
Ollie had such a hard time. He never really recovered, before they left. I never saw the same version I knew of him again, and that hurt almost as much as...letting Theo go. Not quite, but it's still that kind of remorse that can hit you to this day. The same I would have felt if Theo had stayed in Alaska for me.
Selfishly, it was the wrong thing to do.
Honestly, it was the right thing to do.
He needed to be with his aunt, and Ollie, his
family. I would never get in the way of that - and to this day, I can't fathom the amount of pain he must have been in when we decided to put our relationship to rest once he moved. He didn't need the ties here - but I know he felt the same way as I did. I never had a reason to think otherwise.
The day he moved we lost our high school hockey captain, my brother's teammate, a future high school homecoming king in the making and the love of my life. It hurt so, so deeply.
And then Jake stepped in.
Not
immediately, of course. And not in a romantic way, at first.
One of our best friends and his alternate, Jake had been in the picture for as long as I could remember, growing up with all of us and one of the family. I remember he was one of the first people to check on me, to
continue to check on me, always there if I needed a shoulder to cry on or a swig of vodka from the bottle he stole from his dad's cabinet. I had my girlfriends for the hardest stuff - the gnawing itch to continue to text him, the hole in my chest that wasn't closing quite right as I stumbled the rest of the way through my sophomore year. I admit I didn't always handle my own grief in appropriate ways, but we all cope the best we can.
Over time it got a little easier. And over time, Jake and I turned towards love. It was an awkward transition at first, admitting it to our friends and family or eventually just getting caught. But then it smoothed, and settled, and by the time we graduated high school we'd entangled our futures together. Jake applied to join the Army at Fort Richardson, and I attended community college in the area before completing my nursing degree.
I swear I blinked and the crazy life milestones flew by me. We got engaged when I turned 22, and had a beautiful ceremony the next year surrounded by family in Anchorage. I remember us briefly talking about inviting Theo and Ollie, but at that point we'd both slowly lost contact. Honestly, I didn't know if it'd be rubbing salt in the wounds either.
Then we bought a house, then I got assigned to the neonatal department after passing my NCLEX, then I...well, we started talking about having a family. Don't get me wrong, it's very much a part of the plan, but I had this calling, this
knowing, that there was more for me to do out there right now. Call it spiritual, or a sign, I don't know, but I followed my gut and after my first rotation, applied for a travel nurse role at a hospital in Oregon.
Being there for 6 months, experiencing something new, really invigorated me. Jake was on base or at times stationed across the country in training and prep - it gave us both something to talk about over the phone every day, our new experiences or moments.
Recently I took another travel rotation in California, Los Angeles area, while Jake is returning home with a potential deployment timeline. I kind of know he wants me back there, that time is precious before he might be sent overseas or who knows where, but I wanted to give myself this short contract to experience something a little different before we settle down. I'd rather have tried than to never have at all!"
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
"Wish I could say Stella was a nuisance when she was younger. Sticking her nose into my business, getting involved where she shouldn't, being that wild little sister you always dread. But no - instead she was always quiet and kept her head down. Followed the rules to a T...which, if you ask me, was the expected but boring way to live. She found the guy and just seemed to know that was it for her? Nothing else was going to matter because it was her and Theo, to the end...until it wasn't. That was the first glimpse I got of this other Stella. Not a terror, but more so someone to worry about. So it kinda surprised me when she ended up with Jake. He seems to make her happy, sure, yeah, but it's like we all just kind of wait for something else to happen there. I swear my mom's holding her breath, and the first time she let it out was when Stel mentioned traveling for a little while. I got out early, went to college in Michigan and thought she'd just settle in Alaska and never look back. Which she has, in a way...but for once you kind of get this sense she's got her own change of direction. I hope she takes it and holds on. "
- PARKER DUNN, BROTHER
"I met Stella in Oregon, and boy was she a fresh face in the midst of some truly crunchy people. Going from Chicago to there was such a big change, but then sweet little Stella appeared and I spent half the time wanting to corrupt her, the other half watching her spin that pretty engagement ring around her finger. She was so polite and forthcoming about her husband being in the service - honestly, it was the only way I could totally justify marriage that young. Just a thing, y'know? But get that girl a few drinks in and she truly comes alive, has some hilarious stories from growing up in Alaska which to me is absolutely the wild west. Every once in a while you'd see something spark in her eye when she brought up an ex, but she never mentioned his name to me. The ultimate mystery love - no idea if he hurt her, or just got away, but when our contracts ended she absolutely left me hanging. We still text these days - I'm down in Texas, she's ended up around LA - but I feel almost too bad to pry at this rate. Missed my chance! "
- LISA DONAGHUE, FELLOW TRAVEL NURSE
"I wouldn't have made captain if it wasn't for Stella Palmetto. I've never told her this, but I had noticed her long before she started attending our games - I'd caught glimpses of her when I went round to knock for her brother Parker, or in the hallways of our school between classes. When I saw her out in the crowd I was so distracted I almost took a puck to the face, but then I was burning with a desire to impress her, so I played my ass off. I played my ass off at every game she ever attended, which was pretty much every single one I ever played after that. I can't understate how much of an influence she was on my life; everything I did, I did to impress her or to keep up with her or to free myself up to spend more time with her.
We were kids, of course. Stupid, optimistic. But I really believed we'd be together forever, that she was the mother of my kids, the works. I figured I'd get a job in our hometown and we'd buy ourselves a nice place, have at least three kids, spend our twenties raising them... I guess someone else gets to live that life now. It's funny, bereavement takes so much more from you than just the people who died. I spent a good few years mourning the death of that relationship and I'm trying to be happy for her, for Jake. It's a work in progress."
- THEO LOVETT, EX BOYFRIEND
