We all have friends. If you are lucky you even have a small
circle of best friends. If you are really lucky you have that one best friend
that goes back longer than you care to think about well because then you start
feeling old.
My best friend has been my best friend since I was about 8
years old and that’s just about 31 years. Her family moved next door to my
family, in Upstate NY. Our parents became friends and so did we. We waited for
the bus together; we played together every day outside on swing sets and riding
bikes. We grew a little older playing outside turned into watching movies like
Nightmare on Elm Street and Karate Kid; baking and making her little sister eat
dog food. We only lived next door to
each other for a few short years until her family moved away to Maine. It was a
sad day. I remember her family waiting for the bus with me that morning. I
remember crying but I also remember never feeling like that was going to be the
last time I was going to see her.
We remained friends. We wrote each other letters, snail mail
style. Our families made trips for visits. Our parents would meet half way so I
could spend a week with them in the summer. Then we were teenagers. We had boyfriends,
licenses and cars. The trips were more frequent going both ways. There were
break ups, Proms, High School Graduations, siblings, many other friends in the
mix (who I’ve loved almost just as long),times where we lost touch for months
at a time being busy with school and our local friends, but we’d eventually always
pick it right back up. We have had College visits; College Graduations, our own
apartments, parties, careers, new boyfriends that turned into Husbands with babies,
weddings, more babies and became Godmothers and Aunties to each other’s
children. We have traveled endlessly to be there for each other for every
milestone and now our children’s, for support, love and encouragement.
It’s a Friendship that I treasure. Besides my family she’s
the only person in my life that I have known this long. She’s always been a
constant in my life. She knows things about me that my other friends don’t and will never know because
no other friend knew what I was like as a little girl. She’s a friend I know I
can call whenever for whatever no matter what. She has seen me at my worst and
at my very best. She is supportive, positive, loving and so caring.
She is the
best Auntie my kids could ever have. My oldest son will be 16 and he was the
only child forever in everyone’s life. She never missed a birthday, a
milestone, a card for silly holidays, gifts and Congratulations cards for
pretty much every achievement. She’s made
endless trips to attend his birthday parties and stayed later than expected on
a Sunday to see him in his first Halloween costume or catch a travel basketball
game. She’s continued and done the same for my youngest son.
I love her and her family, her parents, her sister and her
family, her friends and their families. She brings so much to my life and her
friendship makes me a better person.
So, today on her birthday I want to say Thank you to her.
Thank you for being you. Thank you for being the person that never required me
to sacrifice my happiness, other important relationships or my dreams to be
your friend. Thank you for your presence in my children’s lives. Thank you for supporting
and encouraging me without ever judging. Thank you for being a loyal friend
even though we spend so much time apart. Thank you for loving me just as I am.
Happy Happy Birthday Melissa Ann!!
