Best Friends Forever!

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER—

I was just reminded this week on how very blessed I am to have an abundance of friends.  I’m not talking about a bunch of shallow acquaintances either, but true, life sharing friends.

However, I am truly grateful to also have that one special BFF who has not only shared life, but history with me, and everything in between.

And I never saw her coming.

Cathy and I worked together for an entire year, and in all that time I refused to even associate with her.  This “bad girl” was undesirable, different, weird, and not at all someone I cared to hang around with.  Then tragedy struck down my charmed new adult life, and as is typical all my “faired weather friends” scattered to the four winds.  Suddenly I became the undesirable girl, the bad influence no one wanted to associate with.

But Cathy did.

Soon I learned that all of my preconceptions of her had been horribly wrong and unfair, that she had more purity of heart and spirit and character than all those who left me hanging when I needed them most.

She pulled no punches when holding me accountable in dealing with and rising above my issues, and helped me become better and stronger in the process.  She was the one person who helped me escape an abusive marriage, became the labor coach of my first son, the maid-of-honor at my wedding, and has been my personal cheerleader through the ups and downs of family and career.  Through the years we have shared laughter and tears, and are absolutely there for each other, always joking that someday when it’s “just us” again, we will live together in some seaside cottage as little old ladies baking cookies.

If you read any of my stories, you will see Cathy pop out in some form from time-to-time (Tommie in the GUARDED TRILOGY is loosely based on her).

Everyone should have a special BFF, that one person who would braid your hair as a little girl, then help you cross the street with your walker as an old lady, that one heart sister who without blinking would take a bullet for you if it was within her power to do so, then later scold you for putting yourself at such risk in the first place.

It is said “there is no greater love than a person who lays down his life for a friend.”  This is so true.  I am grateful to have one such person who would do so, and brave enough to share my weird, complicated, crazy life as well.

So here’s to you Cathy, my true BFF in every sense of the word.  Thank you so much for loving me long before I even wanted to like you.  I owe you a Mrs. Knott’s chicken dinner, and a lot of biscuits and boysenberry jam.

But I’m still not eating your broccoli casserole.