The Trommers, of Feasterville, worried at first if caring for their little girl would upset Melissa, remind her of Jasta, but that hasn't been a problem, Ingrid Trommer said. She and her husband also realize Melissa can't remember many instructions they tell her, so they write things down.
Every morning on the toaster they leave a Post-it note: Please make Katie a piece of toast. In her room they leave a note: Please turn air conditioner on for her nap.
"Melissa is the strongest person I know," Ingrid Trommer said. "It is just incredible what she has endured and how far she has come."
Melissa drives now, but never at rush hour, and only to work, the cemetery, or the preschool, where she tends a bench dedicated to Jasta. She is able to do this, said Fried, because these are familiar routes, deeply embedded in her brain.
If a road is closed, Melissa will panic and call her mother, unable to cope with finding a new course. She will not drive to the mall because she can never remember where she parked.
In March, Melissa began cleaning a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation office three nights a week, through a program run by Inglis Community Employment Services to help people with disabilities find and keep jobs.
Melissa prefers to keep busy, not only because it keeps her mind off Jasta, but also because it helps her to focus.
"I just try to take it day by day, but hope to get myself stronger and happier," she said. "The only thing I want and would try to push for is to try and be happy. I don't know if it is possible. I'm not happy, but I'm not unhappy. I'm stuck choosing one of the ways, like a teeter-totter, happy or unhappy.
"And I feel guilty if I'm happy. I feel I shouldn't be. I remind myself what happened. It makes me go, 'You shouldn't be happy.' Because I don't have Jasta. Not that I want to be like that. That's just how I feel like I'm going to be."
Last month, Melissa went to Myrtle Beach with the Trommers for a week - as a friend, not a baby-sitter. "I had so much fun just being away," she said. She even went parasailing. Later this month, she's going on a cruise to Alaska with her best friend, Erin Doyle.
Erin knows Melissa can't plan, so she asks Melissa what she'd like to do - and then makes it happen.
The other evening, Melissa was back cleaning the PennDot office. Jen Holtzworth, her job coach, was there helping.
When Melissa started the job, she couldn't remember how to wheel the big bucket of water. Holtzworth would show her - put the mop into the bucket, and use that for leverage to push and steer. But Melissa couldn't remember from one night to the next. This went on for weeks.
On this night, Melissa wheeled the mop and bucket onto the main floor with ease - just as Holtzworth had taught her many times.
"Look," Holtzworth pointed out, "she remembered."
Melissa overheard this comment, turned and smiled.
"She drilled it into my head," Melissa said: "Put it in the water and push!"
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