I don’t even know how to put into words how I felt at the end of the Lost series. In the past 3 days I must have transitioned through all 5 stages of grief in regards to the finale episode. I think that I have maybe come to terms with the fact that I will not have all the answers and that it is just a show. When Jimmy Kimmel predicted that the end would be the smoke monster spelling “Gotcha Suckas” in the sky I should have known!

The Lost obsession began with my husband and I renting the DVDs from Netflix. Gradually more and more of our friends started to join until there were a dozen Lost fans piled in the living room on the edge of our seats watching one episode after the other into the wee hours of the morning. I was listening to podcasts with recaps and theories. I even had an autographed photo of Terry O’quinn the actor that played John Locke!

My aunt and uncle live in LA as actors and writers believe it or not and they are good friends with Terry (can I call him Terry since they do?). I mentioned my obsession with the show once while visiting them out and California. My aunt told me that next time she talked to Terry she would see if she could get me a souvenir or something.

A month or so later I get a manila envelope in the mail hand addressed to me with a return address from Hawaii. I was perplexed as to who would be sending me something from Hawaii. I opened it to discover this…

“To Natalie, with best wishes. I remember Waxahachie, Places In the Heart, 1983. All the best to you Natalie. Terry O’Quinn- LOCKE”

I was so excited about that photo. I ran around the house screaming like a 13 year old girl at a Jonas Brother’s concert. When my aunt talked to Terry she just asked if she could get something to give to me, and he volunteered to send something himself. When she gave him my address she started to spell Waxahachie, and he said, “Oh, I know how to spell Waxahachie” because he was in a movie that was filmed here. Since then Terry O’Quinn has managed to have a character stay alive on LOST, which if you watch the show, that is a feat in and of itself. He also won an Emmy in 2007 for his role as John Locke.

After 6 seasons of Lost viewers started loosing interest and much like the cast members that were killed off in the show, our little fan club dwindled over time. However for the series finale we made a special effort to get together and celebrate this momentous occasion like old times. My friend made some rockin’ t-shirts. Mine said LOST on top and had the Dharma logo then at the bottom it said “we want answers 5-23-10” we have since joked about inserting the word “still” now that it’s over. SJ’s onesie said “I’m a little lost”.

We had mango quesadillas and fruit on a fish platter as part of the island theme and we all piled in the living room one more time to watch the final episode on the same little square tv that started it all 5 years ago.

Regardless of the ending, I don’t know if any show will ever captivate me like Lost did and I don’t know that I would want it to, but for those of us that were faithful to the end there is some sort of camaraderie. We will always be able to remember the good ol’ days when we were all LOST.