Chrisy and I have been friends since before I could
speak a word of English. We were four years old.
Aunt Minnie, our neighbor at 424 Purisima, said
we couldn't possibly be friends because
we were like Mutt and Jeff.
She was tall and thin and I was tiny.
No matter. We liked the same things, we were born
days apart, and Chrisy had Portuguese roots.
We were both the babies of our families.
Shared the trials of life together,
reason enough to have 44 years
of friendship behind us.
A sister in-law passed, a nephew passed
with a sister in-law's wedding just around the
corner.
I bawled with the news. Her pain in my
pain. I know what it is to lose a sibling and
I can't imagine losing any of my nieces or
nephews. Lord, let me be spared the lost
of a child. The children of the next generation.
Our families are so intertwined. Donna, the
sister just above Chrisy, is the same age
as Joe. It was her son, Karl, who
lost his battle to cancer. The present
and the past woven together, as
I recalled Karl as an infant.
The four of us would play together,
go to school together, and grow up together.
 |
| Donna, Chrisy, Joe, Me |
 |
| We made the leis from fresh daisies from our neighbor's yard |
Today's message is to relish every day.
Stay close to your beloved. Patch up
any hurts.
