I was just tenderly recounting to my beloved that we don't get our daily chat in anymore. All the years you commuted home we chatted, via cell phone, while I made dinner for first one, than two, and eventually five. We would go a year or more with out seeing each other but we were all caught up for sure! Now I am working full time and you part...what a switch! Not bad, just a new season...it got me waxing poetic about a friendship that has out lasted every social media trend, hair style, and just where jeans land on the hips.
You tell the tale of how my mom painted me as a saint in your CCD class and you expected this goody-two-shoes to have wings and a halo when we met on the public bus to Our Lady of Victory Academy...you quickly found out that my wings were bent, my halo crooked and you were not at all sure which side I was an angel for! For my part, you were a "public" (code we Catholic School kids called public school kids) therefore, I knew you could kick my arse...you could, as I would find out around a Christmas tree many years later, but I diverse. As a public, I had a healthy fear and respect for you...we would so not be friends. That much I knew for sure.
I don't remember how we wound up at the mall together or who talked to the cute guy from Dobbs Ferry High School first but we were friends from that moment on. We found more adventures than I think we should haver...wild for sure, we were! What was the name of that club? Camouflage?
Somewhere between the things that break up a friendship, be it life, a husband, a job, a kid, an argument...whatever that moment is, that creates a drift that shows one a life is still quite full when a friend is no longer a part of it, never took root in our lives.
Why are we still friends? Mommy B. and Rosey.
Did you know that if I swung by your house and you weren't home, Rosey would sit me in the kitchen and chat with me? She would ask about how mom was, ask me what I was going to do, usually tell me to knock it off about something and remind me that my job was to take care of her. Sometimes you would come home, sometimes I would finish my tin cup of whatever and head home. She showed me what hospitality was...I had rarely seen it before your home. I have never doubted that I was welcome...I still know I am.
Mommy B ADORED her Annie. Actually, she called you Annie, I just followed suit. She prayed for you and your joy and your life and for Paul when he came along. She prayed for our friendship and your folks and for your sister, Susan, and even for Billy when I was his CCD teacher...she prayed when your Grandmother had to bury her son and told me to ask how we could help, all that time on the vent...she prayed for her Annie. She had a heart well beyond the classroom for you.
We have loved each other, hated each other, forgiven each other, offended each other, teased each other, and held back each others hair...There is little we have not been big or little about.
We had moms who loved us both...and they were willing to put aside what ever we had done to wound each other...extraordinary woman our moms!
In the last year, you have shown me a part of Mommy B that I didn't understand before. I am so humbled. Thank you...you healed a something I didn't know was there...and I hope that I have shown you what a Savior can do in a life that is wounded. He knew, before a single star was hung or named, that this season would come...He knew and so He gave you a testimony to rest in...that He is God and He knows what He is all about. You have chosen to trust the Greater Hope and for that, He is greatly pleased.. For my part, I could not be more proud of you....nope, just thought about it again, and I am proud of you for sure!
Just heavy on my heart these days girly. Growing up with you has been like having a sister with out the wardrobe drams...well, most of it. I did take those pleated, pin striped jeans that I never gave back and have you seen my turtle neck with the ice cream cones that you borrowed for Halloween in 1984? Never mind...Susan still gets John when I am gone. You get to know that we may be trouble together this side of Heaven, but just you wait to see the adventure we will have together in Glory!
Just call out my name,
Frack
