Yesterday I was on Facebook leaving a comment for a friend from home who lives in San Antonio. She is pretty much my only friend as I have only been in Texas for a few years and the first year I lived in the country and it was quiet.....{crickets}. Anyway, as I was leaving a comment on her profile another friend of mine left a comment too. Friend is a distant word to describe her. The friend I am writing about I have known and been friends with since the sixth grade when she turned around in English class and said to me "what are you looking at?" At the time I just happened to be sitting behind her so I thought I'm looking at the teacher and the chalkboard. Little did I know she would become one of my best friends in my life. I know, everyone says they have best friends, I don't. Well, let me rephrase that, I don't have just one. There are a few people that have always been and will always be in my life, just because....because why? Because I want them to be and they want to be just the same. This person, and because I don't want to embarrass her I'll just call her "Marie", can make me laugh by just saying hi to me. I'm not sure what's STILL so funny after all of these years but even as I sit here typing I have a huge smile across my face and am chuckling to myself.
We have been through a lot together in the 29 or so years we have been friends. School, dances, soccer, parties, my house, her house, her Dad, my Dad, it was like we were the same person only slightly different (I had three brothers she had two and two sisters). So many of my happy childhood and not so childhood memories revolve around Marie.
I remember when her father passed away. I remember how much he would tease us only because he loved her and I was always there! haha I remember going to her vacation home in NH on Lake Winnipesaukee, I remember crashing her go-cart on an unsettled dirt road her dad was building houses on and how he used to let us drive his work truck around on this road (no harm done - she drove!) We both had tough fathers. Tough not in the sense of "hey tough guy", actually her dad was pretty tough, but in the sense that they were tough on us because they wanted so much for us.
I am ever so grateful to have her in my life. I know she will always be a phone call away and she would always be there for me if I needed anything from her, even 2000 miles away and me for her. I love her like the sister I never had.
Erin,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was awesome. This hits home for me because I just re united with a friend from my childhood. It has been almost 12 years and we now work together and hang out all the time. We are only one part of our crew who is the other friend named Pat. There was Big Pat and Little Pat when I was growing up. Big Pat and I have united again and are friends even though we are 6 years apart. It made me think that these two people in my life or who were in my life know everything about my past and childhood right up to when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I know what it feels like to have those friends who are always there even though you don't talk to them on a daily basis! It's such a good feeling and they are the ones who never change and stay the same as always!