Pacini is a 1971 graduate of Half Moon Bay High School, Half Moon Bay, California. At the end of school, just before summer, as many high school students do, she passed her yearbook around to classmates to be signed. At home, she read the entries, all typical in content except for one. That entry simply read, "Stay Gold, Christine." At the time, she did not give the entry much thought, even though she did think it was cool. Soon she found it was how she usually signed her letters. For many years Stay Gold has been her traditional signature.

She often wondered about Christine. Where was she? Pacini had long stored away her yearbooks and could not recall Christine's maiden name (Matecki). Pacini's concept of staying gold developed a special meaning with the trials of life symbolically represented as a crucible, heating and purifying a person's character and ability to have passion and compassion. To tell someone to Stay Gold was to honor them in saying, "You are refined, you are distilled, and you are as precious as gold." Over the years countless people have adapted the expression as their own.

Pacini wrote this expression into the Emma's Love Letters novel. It is mentioned only once; the character Skyler writes it at the end of a letter to the character Emma.

In the novel's End Notes, Pacini had planned to write the basic story about Christine with a statement wishing Christine joy and love wherever she may be. It turns out that she is in Half Moon Bay. If Pacini had attended their 2001 class reunion, they may have crossed paths then. After all these years, serendipity and Tommy Merry brought them together again.