Today is my 67th birthday and I’m having the best time with my best friend. I’m spending the night with her in Alexander City. We hit the high dollar thrift stores on the lake this morning and ate out for lunch and she cooked a delicious supper and we had birthday cake. She has a beautiful home full of all kinds of trinkets and collections with paintings and art work adorning the walls in every room. It’s kinda like spending the night in a museum mixed with an antique store. Every time I walk down the hall I see something interesting I missed before. There are the most unique collections in every possible place. I actually want to get a basket and sneakily fill it up with treasures. Her birthday gift to me was a shopping bag crammed full of prizes. I loved every one of them. I brought us matching pajamas and a stuffed raccoon for her doggy. After supper we put on our pjs and enjoyed a perfect night on her porch. She even has a charming array of old screen doors on her side porch.

She has been my dearest friend for over 40 years. We first met at St. James Episcopal Church in Alexander City. We later casually ran into each other at the city library and discovered we both had a love for reading and we were both expecting our first child. Her son was born in January and my son in June. We followed with another pregnancy together. She had another son and I welcomed a daughter. I followed with another son but they were content with their two boys. Our children grew up together and still remain friends. We spent many happy days together when they were young.

This dear friend has supported me and loved me and held my hands and dried my tears many, many times. She’s a very warm hearted woman with a wonderful capacity to hug you and make it all right with the world. She’s very unassuming and doesn’t know she leaves a warm smile with every one she passes throughout the day. She knows how to laugh and enjoys a good joke. We’ve laughed tonight, a lot. She knows all my stories and keeps my secrets. She’s the first one I call in a crisis and she can see the pain in my eyes when everyone else sees just a smile on my face.

“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”— Hubert H Humphrey