Friends...

September 5, 2008

Do you have a friend that would do anything for you, be there whenever you need her and listen to whatever your heart needs to talk about? I do and I've been blessed with having her in my life for over 25 years!

We met because of a boy... imagine that! But it wasn't about a boy she liked, no it was about a boy I liked and her friend liked. See we lived in two different cities and "this boy"dated both of us (her girlfriend and I). And so Lisa, which would soon become my friend made a pact with her friend to beat me up... because of this boy mind you, it still makes me laugh! Well fortunately during this time we never met up.

Then, just after starting the 9th grade we were moving to a new area. It was out in the country and needless to say my sister and I were not thrilled about this move! Moving to a new town and starting in a new high school was not going to be fun for us...

However, within my first week at this new school I met "Lisa" from a mutual friend we both knew in this new school. Once we began sharing our names she realized I was the "Tina" that she was supposed to beat up! Needless to say she didn't beat me up and we became the best of friends.

She lost her mom when we were only 16 and I can only hope I was half the friend to her as she has been to me over all these years.

When my son died she was there for me in more ways than anyone could ever imagine. She thought of things that I as a grieving mother didn't think about doing and just did them for me. She bought several dresses and then tried them all on "with her socks mind you" for me to pick one for my sons funeral. It wasn't until years later I even realized that I had never even offered to pay for those dresses.

She lost her father and a year later I lost my father...

And then my brother...

It was Lisa I got the call from that something was wrong with my brother and I could hear it in her voice. See by this time it was not just our friendship that had been growing for years, but our families grew together and her sister began dating my brother. It was on their one year anniversary together when my brother's aneurysm burst, it was her sister who was with my brother when it all happened.

We spent 3 weeks at the hospital every day while my brother fought endless battles to get better to be able to have the brain surgery.

Now Lisa was on double duty because not only was her friend in distress, so was her sister.

And as you may know we lost my brother during surgery. Even though she was grieving herself, she remained there for all of us!

Tomorrow (Saturday) is her birthday and what can you possibly get for a friend who means so much to you, who has been there through every stage of your life for both the important moments in life and the not so important ones? Always there for advice or just to listen and of course for lots and lots of laughs! the least I could do is to say