Are you lucky enough to have a
BESTEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD?
If not,
then you have no idea
what you are missing.
Block #26
is for the
FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!
Diane,
really Diana
but I don't think I have ever
called her by her given name,
and I have known each other
close to 50 years now.
Bestest Friends
for 45 years,
give or take a year or two.
To be honest,
I can't remember
a time in school when I didn't know her.
But,
I still remember the day
when I knew we were BEST FRIENDS
not just good friends.
Junior High,
standing by our lockers outside the shop class,
we had similar spring coats on
AND the popular
triangle scarves.
We made matching scarves
and the rest,
as they say,
is history.
So why,
you may ask,
a sleeping angel
and a cat for a
BESTEST FRIEND
IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD?
Diane started her married life
our sophomore year in college.
Kim came along real quick after.
When I would go home on weekends
I would always visit her.
She was not only being
a wife
and mother to a knew little girl,
but she was working full time.
I can not count
the number of times
she fell asleep
while we were watching some show
on TV.
but, it did become a joke.
She knew she could get some sleep
when I showed up.
And I knew I could
watch cable TV.
(This was 1970-71 you know.
Not a lot of cable TVs then.)
Now, the cat
leaning over the top
and whacking at the angel.
She became the mother
to Barney and Betty,
litter mates from another friends
Boris and Natasha.
(Getting another TV image here?)
Both lived a long
and happy life.
The last time I visited Diane,
in Tennessee,
Barney had died,
and Betty was going to be going soon.
It was just one of those things you knew.
So,
before we left her house,
I went on a search for Betty.
She was under their bed.
I crawled under,
just far enough to pet her,
and said my goodbyes.
So,
the cat is a reminder
of not only Barney and Betty,
but of all of the other cats
Diane "adopted"
when she was still in Indiana.
Dear Lord,
Thank you for Diane. From the 1st times I spent the night at her house as a child to the last time I spent the night at her house as an adult, I have known true friendship. You, in Your infinite wisdom, have blessed me with someone who is special.
We never had disagreements, though we each knew when the other wasn't happy with the other. But the friendship was so much more important than the argument.
We knew that the other was always there, come thick or thin, good times or bad, happy or sad. We KNEW that the other one was either a phone call away or in their car driving to wherever we were because they knew the other one needed them.
Blues Brothers traveling on the highways of Indiana . . that was us. (Hope you remember the greeting card and the joke, Lord . . we both thought it was perfect and a hoot at that.)
Amen.
(742)
