About Tami's Life
Tami was born in Hammond, Indiana on June 26,
1972 to Dianne Gifford. She was one of a set of twins. She was preceeded in death by her dad, Carl Gifford who died on February 3, 1972. Her mom remarried after a while to Paul T. Norris. Even though Tami never got to meet her dad, she thought about him often. We know that because after her death we found personal letters that she wrote to her dad stating that she wished that she could be with him. Even though she knew she could never see her dad, she wrote her feelings down for us to find. Tami was one child out of 8. She has 5 brothers and 2 sisters. She was also a twin. She attended many different grade schools due to her parents often relocating, but she spent most of her gradeschool years in Marshall and Starke County, Indiana.
(L)One sister and neice holding picture of Tami (R)Tami, shortly before she left.
She attended Culver Elementary School through grade 4 and then attended Washington Elementary School for grade 5. She went on to Knox Middle school and in the middle of that year, we started moving south. She spent 6th and 7th grade in Bowling Green, Kentucky. We then moved on to the Lafayette/ Westmoreland area in Northwest Tennessee where she spent her 8th grade. In her 8th grade year she began participating in sports. She found something that she enjoyed doing that she was GREAT at. At that time, basketball was her life. Her older sister was married and living in Niceville, Florida so Tami's parents decided to move to Niceville so they could all be together...and off they all went.
Tami excited about digging into the Kentucky Fried Chicken
Tami spent her 9th grade year in Niceville. During her 9th grade year, Tami's older sister had a baby. Calina was her name and she was Tami's world. She was so proud of that baby. I remember seeing her holding Calina and it was like she was a mommy herself. She really enjoyed babysitting and just spending time with her. Now Tami is 15 and is started becoming interested in boys and the other stuff 15 year old girls are interested in. She spent a lot of time at the local skating rink. She also worked there as volunteer help in which free skating was given as pay for her services. She spent about a year in Niceville and then her family moved onto another small town just 20 miles away from there Called Crestview, Florida.
This is a picture of all 8 kids.
(Standing) TAMI, Cori, Doug (Sitting 2nd Row) Phillip and Alanna.
(Sitting 1st row) James, Seth, Ian
She began making new friends in Crestview and for some reason...became interested in playing pool!! HaHa. She would go to the local pool hall, Double's Pizza I think it was called. Again she found a sport that she enjoyed that she was really good at. The boys used to make jokes about having to play her because they knew that they were going to lose. It was another sport that became second nature to her. She made friends there and it became her local hangout. It was while living in Crestview that numerous chains of events occured that changed our family's lives forever........
Tami - Age 13
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