Angel Dru - In the hearts of us all

She pulled up the barstool after enjoying dinner with Linda, Sid and Allan, who were behind her, playing a fierce game of pool. The bartender walked over, asking who the adults were with Dru. When Dru informed him that they were her parents, she gave him a stern look that told him to accept the idea that she had three parents, and not to ask any questions.

Chris Lang, who usually only bartended during the summer in Crosslake, had decided to stay on staff at The Wharf that particular winter. "It was a horrible winter for business because there was no snow," Chris recalled. "But it was a great winter because I met Dru." Chris, who shared a common interest in graphic design with Dru, was captivated by her. The pair spent much of the night conversing. "She told me she was moving out to Aspen and that she was heavy into photography and painting," said Chris, who doodled a picture of Dru on a napkin while they talked and then gave it to her.

At the time, both Dru and Chris were seeing other people, but the connection they shared was nevertheless a special one. "I just remember thinking, "That was a really cool girl," Chris said. It wasn't until the summer of 2003 that Dru and Chris would run into each other again.

After that winter night at The Wharf, Dru left Minnesota for an internship with an airline company in Aspen, Colorado, which gave her the opportunity to travel. She went to Paris, Hawaii, Washington D.C ., and even made special trips to surprise her loved ones.

During her internship, Dru called her Aunt Diane and Uncle Bob to let them know she wanted to visit. "I was so surprised and wondered what was up that would take her away from skiing in Aspen to come visit us," Diane recalled. She spent time with her cousins as well as her aunt and uncle. "It seems hard to imagine a busy college student like Dru would share herself like that with her uncool old aunt and uncle but she did, and we treasured every moment," Diane said. "Those couple of days were a gift we had no understanding of until now."

In the summer of 2003 Dru returned home for a week from her apartment in Grand Forks to take part in her friend Adam's wedding. Adam's wife-to-be had invited friends and family, including co-workers from her job at The Wharf. Dru immediately connected with one of the bartenders who had a familiar face.

"When she resurfaced into my life last summer, I was like, "I remember you," Chris said, smiling at the memory. "I wanted to hang out with her again for sure." And he did. Dru and Chris spent most of the reception at each other's side. Previous relationships had ended for both of them by the time summer hit, and a new spark was igniting as the reception came to a close.

The next day, wedding-goers from the previous night gathered together to go tubing on the Pine River. "It was the greatest day," Chris said. "I had the best time with Dru." The pair exchanged phone numbers after their day of tubing, in hopes of keeping in touch. They did. "We just started talking on the phone," said Chris. At the end of each phone call Chris would tell Dru that he wanted to talk to her again. A friendship immediately grew into something more. "It felt like it was just happening," Chris said. "There wasn't any work to it."

The couple dated long-distance, growing closer with each visit and phone call. "She had this energy that was just amazing," Chris said. "Whenever she was in a room she added light to it. I loved watching her be her."

On Dru's twenty-second birthday, Chris couldn't make it to Grand Forks to celebrate with Dru and her friends. But, knowing her love for foot massages, he sent her a present that kept Dru smiling all night.

Dru's birthday fell on a Friday night, giving her high school friend, Sarah Millard, the opportunity to take a road trip to celebrate with Dru. As the girls talked excitedly about their plans, they heard a knock at the apartmentment door. "It was the UPS man with a delivery for the birthday girl from a very special someone in her life," Sarah said. Dru immediately opened the present from Chris, revealing her very own foot massager. "We had to peel her off the couch to get her out of the apartment and into the bus because she was quite content with her new present," Sarah recalled.

Dru rented a bus for the birthday celebration, giving the girls a safe and sober ride home no matter where they went that night. But the plans for a ride home were later quashed when Dru discovered that someone had stolen her party bus.

"We were about to leave a particular bar when I recall Dru laughing and trying to spit out the words, "Someone stole my bus," Sarah said. While most people might express serious concern if their vehicle was stolen, Dru did no such thing. She and her friends laughed at the situation, trying to understand how someone would have stolen the bus. "The best part is that Dru has this hilarious face she makes when she laughs really hard," Sarah said. "Her one eye closes so it looks like she's winking and her big hearty laugh comes out." The bus and its thief were later caught, but the memory of the stolen party bus will forever remind Sarah of Dru's ability to adapt and enjoy the sudden changes in plans.

"It was such an odd happening, but who better for it to happen to than Dru?" Sarah said. "Her big heart opened up and she didn't have a care in the world. Heck, she probably would've invited the guy who stole her bus to ride along."

A couple of weeks later, a photo of Dru graced the front page of the university's newspaper above the headline, "More than just a statistic.' The image of Dru hanging a t-shirt on a clothesline in the University of North Dakota's Memorial Union depicted the work of volunteers with the Clothesline Project, which featured a display of t-shirts made by victims of violence or their familes. The Clothesline Project, put on by the Women's Center and Community Violence Intervention Center, held a special place in Dru's heart. Just more than a month after that, Dru proved the ironic truth that she will always be more than just a statistic as people all over the world heard of her abduction and later, mourned her death.

October, 2003 was a busy month for Dru, who was focused on her schoolwork, her two jobs, her family and building her relationship with Chris.

While Chris was on a road trip to Las Vegas with three of his friends that month, he put $10 into a poker machine in Lake Tahoe to bide his time while waiting for his friends to get ready to go out. On his second spin he got a royal flush. As the sirens and bells alerted everyone in the area of his royal winnings, he could think of only one person that he wanted to alert. "I called Dru and held up the phone to the machine," Chris said. "She asked what the sound was and I told her, "That's the sound of you coming to Vegas to see me if you want." Dru, with her spontaneous nature, couldn't turn him down, so she headed out to meet Chris for a three-day vacation.

When she arrived in Las Vegas, Chris was still three hours away so he told her to go somewhere safe and wait for him. "A half an hour later she calls me and tells me she is hanging out with her new friend," Chris recalled. Dru had met a middle-aged woman who was at the airport waiting for her husband to arrive. They struck up a conversation, which somehow led to a discussion about tattoos and body piercings. Dru had her belly button pierced and her new friend told her that she'd like to have hers pierced, but would never be able to go through with it.

"Dru was like, "No, I think you should do it right now,' and they went and did it," said Chris, who could barely believe the story when Dru told him. "In three hours of knowing Dru this woman had taken photos with her and gotten her belly button pierced," Chris said.

Their vacation in Las Vegas was the beginning of a new level for Dru and Chris. "We told each other that we loved each other in Vegas," Chris said. "Part of my life was finally coming together and it was because of her."

Dru wasn't quiet in her love for Chris, either. She told her friends and family on several occasions that he was a very special person in her life. The weekend before Halloween, Dottie came to Brainerd and Dru met her there to catch up on lost time. "Dru and I sat and talked for two hours about so much," Dottie said. "She had worked very hard and was excited to be where she was at and she was looking forward to the next step. She was really figuring in her mind that Chris Lang could be the one." It was the last time Dottie saw Dru. Their time together will always be special to Dottie. "I cherish that time so much," she said.

Football season was at its peak on Nov. 16, 2003. Chris and Dru decided to meet that Sunday at a sports bar in Park Rapids to watch some of the games. Dru, an avid Vikings fan, often harassed Chris about his love for the Green Bay Packers.

"She and Chris were always arguing because he's a Packers fan and she, of course, hated the Packers," said Sid. In fact, one time while hanging out at Chris' apartment, Dru showed Chris just how she felt about his favorite team. "We were just hanging out watching TV and I went into the other room to make us food or something. I was gone for literally three or four minutes total," Chris said. "I come back in and she's sitting Indian-style, looking up at me: she's wearing my Favre jersey, cheese necklaces and she's holding my framed stock in the team." When Chris looked at her in confusion Dru let him know just what she was doing. "She said, "I just wanted you to see how fricking stupid you look wearing all this crap," Chris recalled.

Meeting at the sports bar that Sunday gave both Dru and Chris the option of watching their favorite teams play. It also gave Allan, who was in Park Rapids for the weekend, the opportunity to visit with his daughter and her boyfriend. Before heading to the bar, Dru met Allan at a piece of land he owned. Allan was trying to figure out what he wanted to do with it and he wanted his creative daughter to help him come up with ideas.

"I talked about making it a landscaping business and told her she could sell her paintings there if she wanted," Allan said. Dru told her dad she would think about the land and let him know what she came up with.

When Dru and Allan walked into the sports bar, Chris was already there waiting for them. They spent the afternoon chatting and watching the games. When it came time for Allan to head back to the Twin Cities, he gave Dru a giant hug and kiss and then left. Dru and Chris decided to stay in Park Rapids for the night. They were finishing up their beers when Allan walked back into the bar. "I got five miles out of town and I had this really crazy feeling," recalled Allan, who was not known to do things like that. "I turned around and went back to get more hugs and kisses from her. Now, I know that return trip was for Linda and Sven." That would be the last time Allan saw Dru.

Dru and Chris spent the night at Allan's place in Park Rapids and they woke up early the next morning to get back to their respective apartments. "The last thing I said to her face was, "I love you, drive safe," Chris said. They parted ways and Dru began her drive back to Grand Forks. Allan called Dru that morning to see how things were going and make sure their night went well. As they talked Dru brought up the property that she had looked at with her dad the day before.

"She said, 'I was thinking about that property' and then she said, "You don't have much money but you've got a lot of trees," recalled Allan. "It was her way of telling me she liked it." It was also the last time Allan talked with Dru. The following week was a busy one for Dru and they played phone tag for the next few days, leaving each other loving messages.

Dru went to work at Victoria's Secret on the morning of November 22, 2003. The girls working at Victoria's Secret, who referred to themselves as a family, spent their shifts sharing stories about their lives and getting advice from one another.

"The girls who worked at Victoria's Secret were really close," said Beth Borgen, Dru's friend and co-worker. "We always had a good time." But like any employee, Beth loved her days off. That Saturday was one of those days, but Beth was on call in case it got busy. "I was so upset when they called me in," she remembered. "I kept saying, "Why am I here?" Despite being disappointed about being called in, Beth was excited to see Dru at work because they shared a similar sense of humor and working together always made the time go faster. "If anyone was in a bad mood and Dru was around she could put them in a good mood. She could always joke about things," Beth said. "We'd get new things in the store and she'd try them on over her clothes."

That day Dru and Beth talked about their boyfriends and their plans for that night. "Dru was so excited because she was actually going to get to go home and take a nap," Beth said. Dru, who loved to sleep and was never much of a morning person, usually left her job at Victoria's Secret and headed straight to her second job at a local college bar. As she said goodbye to Dru that afternoon, Beth had no idea that she would be the last one of Dru's friends and family to see her alive. "I don't think I'll ever forget what she looked like that day," she said.

The Tuesday following Dru's disappearance was to be the first opportunity for Dru to introduce Chris to her entire family. "It was the first time in 30 years our whole family was going to be together," Linda said.

Meanwhile, over that Christmas break, Dru was supposed to meet Chris' family for the first time. "It just sucks because it was starting to get to the next level," Chris said about their relationship and their plans for the future.

From holiday plans, to the wedding of one of her closest friends in January 2004, to her planned trip to Australia this past summer and subsequent college graduation, Dru's presence in the lives of all those who loved her has been missing ever since she first disappeared.

Dru Sjodin not only lived life, she experienced it. For those individuals she met along the way, Dru's zest for life and her ability to reach out to all types of people will always be inspirational. "I live my life every day trying to be just a portion of like she was," Dani said. Family and friends will never forget Dru's internal and external beauty, nor will they let their memories of her fade.

"I adored Dru and she was worth every minute of it," said Dru's Aunt Carol. "She was a gift to our family. There was never a dull moment when that young lady was around."

"I'll always miss Dru," Kelsey said. "I can only be grateful that I was able to have Dru in my life and was privileged enough to be a part of hers."

-Written by Kristen Swing, Staff Writer, Pequot Lakes Echo