Dear Friend and Reader:
I met Ally when I went to Chicago to see Dani (Danielle Voirin, our Paris-based photo editor) last spring. Ally lives with Dani’s mom and her mom’s husband. I saw tomorrow’s daily photo come through with news that she was going to be euthanized Wednesday morning. Dani has been friends with Ally for many years, and had I not met them together, I would felt like I had really missed something.
Ally lives with her family in an impeccably neat house that you could describe with one word: Americana. The house is a tribute to Middle America. Everything is absolutely neat and under control, like a Sears showroom. Dani’s family is low-key and friendly. There is an atmosphere of well-composed normalcy. We had steak and potatoes for dinner.