Best Friends

While I was in the lunch room heating up my lunch today, I noticed two women laughing and chatting as they sat down to eat together. I know that they are good friends in the real world (i.e. outside of work) and that their children play together and their families spend time together on weekends. I couldn't help think how blessed they are to be able to share both their personal and professional lives together and I wished I could let them know how precious these times are.

About fifteen years ago there was a short-lived TV show called The Mommies. I loved the fun way that it portrayed two Moms, best friends, navigating waters of motherhood and marriage.

I have been blessed to have had three special friends during my lifetime, each one unique and at a different stage of life, and each one who has been a "best" friend. I'm doubly-blessed because I am still in touch with each one of them in some manner. In fact, I'll bet that each on of them will be reading this post.

I was thirteen years old and terrified to be the new kid in town when I met Danna. We went through the awkwardness of adolescence together, skipped school, talked about boys, yakked on the phone, and talked about the future. She was going to be a commercial artist and I was going to be a writer. Then we graduated from high school and our lives took separate paths.

I met Dannielle when were both standing on a street corner waiting for a bus with children and babies in tow. She was starting a Mom's group and I was one of the first to join. Over the years we raised our children and drank countless cups of coffee together and talked about everything under the sun. We even shared a passion for writing and talked about writing a book together. Eventually our children grew older, we began to work outside of the home, and went in different directions.

I met Wanda when I started a new job almost twenty years ago. We used to joke that it was the best of times and the worst of times because we worked so hard but still had many laughs together. After she retired, we started meeting for coffee every week and our friendship grew stronger and deeper. Wanda knows me in way way that no one else does, and the best thing is that she still loves me!

When Gerry and I moved away a few years ago losing that face-to-face relationship with my BFF left a large void in my life. I miss Wanda and I can't imagine having another friend like her in my life. It would take twenty years to get to the place where we are now, for goodness sakes!

Still....I'd like to have another friend to have coffee with once in a while......