Best Friends

How long have you known your "best friend"?  I actually have two best friends: Jeannie & Juli.  I have know them both since I was a young teen.  Over fourty years now.  Although the three of us did have mutual friends I also did things with them seperately.  Actually, I think that the two of them may have gotten to know each other because I was a friend to them both. 

We did things all teenage girls do.  Shopped for cloths, ate burgers and pizza, "hung-out" and most importantly...talked about boys.

Jeannie and Juli both had brothers and at one time or another tried to set me up as their brother's girlfriend. They thought it would be "neat" if we were related. I never dated either of the brothers but did become good friends with both of them.

As we grew older and graduated from high school life managed to take us in different directions. But no matter how long it had been or how many miles seperated us, we always have been able to get together and start up where we left off.  We may not be sisters by blood but we love each other as much as if we had all been conceived in the same womb.

Our friendship outlasted numerous boyfriends, even husbands.  We've celebrated marriages, promotions, and the births of children and grandchildren.  We have also comforted and held each other up during the loss of a parent, grandparents or other discouraging events.

But today two of us are facing a difficuly larger than we ever imagined.  Juli has been diagnosed with liver cancer.

Jeannie lives four hours away by plane and I'm three hours away by car.  No matter the distance it is too far.

At a hospital in Bremerton, Washington Juli is being cared for by wonderful doctors and nurses. Her children are with her and soon more extended family members will surround her.

I wait anxiously by the phone for a family member to find time to call with updates and test results, then I call Jeannie and relay all I have been told to her.

Today I'm wishing that I had married her bother,  then I would really be part of the family and not just her "best friend from childhood" waiting by the phone for news.