Nichole and Jamie grew up as sisters not cousins. I love Jamie as a daughter, she even says I am her "second mom". Watching Jamie grow up to be such a wonderful young woman and a devoted mommy has been a blessing. I knew this chapter would be hardest for me because I see Nichole walking with Jamie through her life events, like getting married, giving birth and interacting with her parents, sibling and cousins. How my heart aches to be able to watch Nichole walk down the isle, hold her hand and help her "breathe" through childbirth, see that love light shine in her eyes as she looks at her baby for the first time, call me up just to tell me how her day went and just interact with those that she loved so very much. I will never know why God decided to call Nichole home so early but I know she is with Jamie always and although it may not make sense to some, I find comfort in watching Jamie's life unfold.

I asked Jamie to share some her memories with me. She, in her own words, "wrote me a book". Some of the things she shared will never be written here, lol, but I will share with you some of her cherished memories of Nichole. The following words are Jamie's.

" It is just to hard to pick one or two memories of Nichole. I had 21 years of memories with my best friend, cousin and sister. Almost all of my favorite memories have her in them. We spent so much time together. So I will walk you through my life with Nichole Danielle Ball, my guardian angel."

"One of my earliest memories was when I was around 4 -5 years old. Aunt Delana was visiting from California. We wanted to do my mom and Aunt Delana's hair and make up, they agreed to let us. Nichole and I thought we did such an awesome job but looking back at those pictures, they were real troopers! Nichole and I loved to experiment with clothes, hair and make-up."

"Nichole and I loved to entertain. We would sing and make up dance routines, Wilson Phillips when we were little and graduated to TLC when we were older. At every family get together we would make the family gather around and watch our show. We would were always so excited to do this but if one of us messed up, which we always did, we would have to start over and over til we got it right. Our poor family sat through countless do-overs, thanks guys!

"I remember at a summer pool party, Nichole got Grandma Ball to "do the butt" with her. The whole family was laughing, singing and dancing. Nichole had that effect on people."

"We would go sit at the park, just the two of us. We would sing Amazing Grace for hours, over and over. We both loved that song. We always tried to harmonize but we were awful singers, but we didn't care. As we got older we started writing raps with the boys. She loved to entertain and she was great at it!"

"Nichole and I didn't have any secrets from each other. We would talk about everything for hours. We talked about our future, husbands, kids, everything."

"When we were little girls we promised each other we would name our children after each other. (Jamie did, her little girl's middle name is Nichole) As we got older we would joke how we would probably have all boys, who would be pissed off at us for being named after girls. We talked about our weddings even as little girls. We just knew we were going to marry "Zack Morris" and "A.C.Slater", we eventually outgrew that stage."

'Grand Rapids, Ohio, a town very near and dear to my heart holds tons of memories with Nichole. Riding on the hood of the car to the pool (not to worry we drove very, very slow and it was only a couple of blocks away), rolling down the big hill at the church and playing round up. We loved to walk up town to get a huge pickle for 50 cents and some 2 cent candy. We would walk to the park and hang out, just the two of us. We would love to follow our brothers around and annoy them. If we got hurt while following them, falling, stubbing toes whatever it was or whoever's fault it was, Jason would always take the blame. Jason took a lot of punishments for us girls." 

"We would love to go to Uncle Dave and Aunt Margie's house to take a bath in their garden tub. One night we decided to dump shampoo in and turn on the jets. The water began to make a huge amount of bubbles and we couldn't turn see through the bubbles to turn off the jets. We started yelling for Aunt Margie, by the time she got down there, we literally had bubbles up to our noses! It was so funny." (I remember Margie telling me about this, she said all she could see were four little eyes peering out of the bubbles, she said she laughed so hard.)

" Almost every time we were alone down in the garden tub, we would hear voices calling out our names and talking to us. We couldn't see them, but they said they were little people and they were stuck in the bathroom vents. We would try to put dental floss tied to toothbrushes down the vent to help pull them out, but it never worked! It took us a few years to realize it was our older cousins messing with us. We really wanted to help those little people!!"

Jamie had so many memories that I felt it necessary to devote two chapters to her memories. Please indulge Nichole's "little sister" a little bit longer. Thank you for allowing another person who loved Nichole so much, to share her memories with you. She isn't just sharing memories, she is sharing a part of herself with you. If you are enjoying Jamie's stories of Nichole, please vote.