Karen Palmer

We really left overnight.

You know, I had a job.

I was working for a semiconductor firm just outside Santa Cruz, and I just one day didn't go to work.

You know, the little one, she was so little, she didn't understand anything.

Erin was enough older that she knew what was happening around her on some level.

And we told her, we're going to go live somewhere where we're safe.

Erin never told a soul.

I think, you know, somewhere inside her, she knew that it was important, and she wanted to help.

Gil was talkative.

You know, it's like he could gab a million miles an hour and he had tons of friends and he had this successful business.

He was very charismatic and he would tell these stories.

incredible stories about having grown up in New York and having been in the army and starting the business and he was a good storyteller and that interested me.

So we would just sit there and at a certain point he asked me, do you want to be my girlfriend?

And I was taken aback

And he said, you don't have to answer me right now.

Why don't you think about it?

And we can talk about it another time.

And there was something about this approach that was so gentle that I felt, well, why not?

Why not?

I like him.