Elana
On Thursday, October 23rd, 2025, I ate dinner, got dressed up, drove to Luke and Josh’s house to drop off Paige and my parking pass and extra key, and drove to the Exchange at Bridge Park for the 11th annual Thread Of Hope (TOH) benefiting Sam’s Fans. As you might recall, TOH is a fashion show. When I walked in, I was slightly overwhelmed.
See, when I first joined Sam's Fans, almost 10 years ago now, I knew pretty much everyone at the events. Over the last few years, however, the trend has been that there are more people that I don’t know at events as the organization grows. Though, to be fair, I haven’t volunteered as much in the last two years, which I need to start doing again, but my point is, S.M.'s family and friends are always busy, and other than talking to each of them individually for a bit, I don’t really know anyone else.
At TOH, this year, I ran into two people. The first was one of Paige’s cousins' girlfriends, who I’m going to call Kristen. “Hey,” We both said, hugging each other. “What are you doing here?” she continued. After I explained the connection, she told me that a friend of hers worked for Thread (the store that puts on the show). After talking to her for a few minutes, I went and mingled with S.M.’s family and friends until the live action started. The auction raised $1 million!!! After the auction, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
“Hi Mitchell,” Elana said when I turned.
“Oh my gosh,” I replied, “Hi!”
Elana was in S.M. and my class at OLP and was a great friend to both of us. Her older half sister, Natalie, set me up with my first girlfriend, and her baby sister, Jenna, went to high school with Paige. The last time I saw Elana was when I started working at Kroger (she quit a few months after I started).
We started to talk, and she caught me up on what she has been doing since we stopped working together. She decided to go to college in 2021, after initially believing that it was not for her, and she’s been dating a guy since 2022. When I went to tell her about how I have been, she replied, “Oh, I know everything! I’ve been following you since you started your podcast. My niece was diagnosed with autism in November of 2019.”
After the fashion show ended, we mingled with everyone for a little bit longer, and then I told Elana, “I have an early flight in the morning, so I gotta go, but we should get coffee soon.”
“I would love that!” She replied.
If I haven’t made this abundantly clear in both this series and Once in a Lifetime: A Song For Sam, I loved S.M. and I miss her every day. Sam's Fans was a major part of my healing process because it was a way for me to channel my grief as a result of her death. S.M.’s Dad has been quoted as saying, “As Sam's Fans grew, so did her spirit.” And he’s not wrong. The work that S.M.’s family and friends do is work that she would have done had she survived Fanconi Anemia, and being part of that makes me feel close to her. But even separate from Sam's Fans itself, reconnecting with Elena is something that makes me feel close to S.M. because I know S.M. loved both of us, and I believe that she is happy that we have reconnected!
Have A Greattastic Day And Be Safe
J. Mitchie Ulibarri
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