She was the youngest of five children, and her brother Joseph Telgarsky remembers how she loved to ride with him on his bike to a candy store, and to float on an inner tube in a swimming pool. Today, he said, her only child, Sarah Ballard, 18, has that same laugh.

Born and raised in Taftville, Conn., Sarah Jane Telgarsky, 37, attended Norwich Free Academy and worked her way to an associate's degree from Three Rivers College and an LPN in nursing from Thames Valley Technical College. She

worked at the Southeast Mental Health Authority, also in Norwich. She loved to garden and especially enjoyed the yard of a home she bought in Plainfield. There she planted flowers and a seedling from her childhood home in Taftville. It had grown into a maple tree, and although she considered moving "she didn't want to leave her tree," said her sister, Caroline Telgarsky.

In the widely viewed video of the last moments inside the club, "she's the blonde in the red sweater, jumping around up by the stage," her sister said. "I take some comfort in that. It's my last image of her, dancing, having a good time."

JUDITH GAINES