Friends are born from the heart. Some of the best ones become a part of your story when you are a kid and then they show up in chapter after chapter throughout your life. I have two to write about today. I’ve always considered them . . . sisters from other mothers.
So my story begins with once upon a time there were three little girls . . .
I was in the third grade when I first became friends with Kathy. She and I were “only” kids. Our mothers were our Girl Scout leaders. She lived just a block from me. She still lives just a few blocks from me.
Throughout the chapters of our lives we were main characters. To know one of us was to know the other. If one of us was upset with someone, so was the other. We always had each other’s back even when we were not close by. We even have burial plots just a ways down from each other.
Kathy performed the wedding ceremony for my daughter Emily and her husband Drew. Actually it was the day before their church wedding. Emily wanted to have the same wedding date as my parents (March 6) so they were married on a Friday with just family attending. It was in one of the old courtrooms in the Hamilton County Courthouse.
Most people know Kathy as a State Representative but my kids have always called her Aunt Kathy. Funny thing is that five years ago she married my daughter-in-laws’s Uncle Perry and so she really is Aunt Kathy.
I’ve always said that in an emergency I would dial 911 and then Kathy.
It was in the seventh grade when Patrice sat in the desk in front of me in Mr. Fleming’s homeroom class. I think our friendship began that first day of seventh grade. For a while, life separated us in miles but never in spirit. Her words made everything better when the chapters of my life were not written the way I had planned.
Patrice is also considered an aunt to my kids. Patrice and I were in each other’s weddings and even our daughters were in each other’s weddings.
Recently, Patrice’s two year old granddaughter, Marissa, saw a picture of Patrice and I and she pointed at me . . . Aunt Janet!
When Patrice and I turned 50, she and I took a Thelma and Louise road trip to Hilton Head . . . but no one died. Our husbands say that we finish each other’s sentences. Well of course we do! Our hearts can read each other’s minds.
Lately, if my kids might not know where I am, they could call Chuck and then Patrice.
When Chuck and I got married Kathy and Patrice sat in my “family” pew. Of course they did!
Friendship is one of life’s greatest blessings. A lifelong friend is a rare jewel. Kathy and Patrice and I may not share the same blood but we share the same hearts.
The chapters of my life would never be the same without them. And yes, we have more chapters to be written.