AUBURN – Her community came out to celebrate the life and mourn the death of Emily Fletcher on Wednesday night.

Friends from her middle school days spoke of the “girls’ nights” they had shared at the Fletcher home, and how they wolfed down her mom’s cookies.

A friend from the University of Vermont, Damon Brink, noted the joy Emily brought to him and others on a bowling team. “She was awful,” he said, “but she was the best awful bowler I’ve ever seen.”

Emily Fletcher, 21 years old.

Edward Little track star.

University scholar excelling in dual majors of nutrition and dietary sciences.

“Em” some called her, a young woman with mysterious eyes that seemed to change color with the day of the week. A girl known for her “infectious smile” that would melt anger from anyone who felt crossed.

Emily Fletcher died late Saturday afternoon when her car went off Route 2 in West Bethel and wound up roof-down in the Pleasant River.

From every indication, she left people with lasting and cherished memories wherever she went.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds of those people came to Lost Valley to remember and thank her for those moments of happiness. The overflow crowd included scores and scores of friends, people she went to school with at Edward Little High School, and a bus load from Vermont.

They included scores and scores of older people, too. Some were teachers. More were the parents of some of those younger people, along with friends of her dad, Ralph Fletcher, and other family members.

Her track coach, Dan Campbell, was singled out by her aunt, Beth Mallon, as being one of the rocks her family would lean against during hard times such as now.

Mallon, who flew in from San Diego, spoke with appreciation for “the community” that found a way to meet the needs of the day, of Emily’s many friends, “that magical group of girls” that she likened to “angels.”

She also spoke with love for her niece, the girl who had came to live with her in California after her mother – Mallon’s sister Lyn, died in 2001.

The two became closer than aunt and niece, said Mallon – they became friends.

One of the many things they shared, said Mallon, was fondness for the song, “I Hope You Dance” by singer Lee Ann Womack and its lyric, “May you never take one single breath for granted.”

After Mallon spoke, she played the tune. Few eyes were dry by the time it finished.

As her aunt had, friends and even pastors spoke of Emily’s suffering at the time of her mother’s death.

Chairlift to heaven

One, the Rev. William Hiss, said that looking around at the Lost Valley Ski Area setting made him think that once the memorial service ended, Emily would ride a spiritual chairlift into the open arms of her waiting mother.

Anne Martin, who starred on EL’s track team with Emily, told the assembly that she reread the notes Emily wrote to her in her yearbook. One of the messages thanked Anne for her support when she was grieving for her mother.

“She’s the one who had the strength and tenacity,” said Martin, who also credited Emily for getting her started in track.

“I only wanted to run track in seventh grade because I thought she was so cool,” Martin said of her friend.

To conclude the service, Martin and some of Emily’s other friends walked to the front of the banquet hall to face Emily’s family and friends and lead all in signing “Silent Night.”

First, though, chaplain Kitsie Claxton, who opened the memorial by saying it was a time to “hold her in our hearts,” reminded people it was all right to grieve.

She spoke of the song Emily and her aunt shared, “I Hope You Dance.”

“Sit it out or dance?” asked Claxton. Emily would be the first to say, “then we dance,” she said.

“No one is ever completely lost,” Claxton added, “and surely, surely not Emily.”