Friendship is the most wonderful gift.  And true friendship is a rare gift--you love your friend, and they love you back as well.  It takes a long time to establish that kind of relationship.

Today I was talking with one of my long-ago friends, Suzanne who lives in West Texas.  We were supposed to meet up at the high-school reunion last month.  But after driving 9 hours to get there, she fell and broke her hip the night before our party--and ended up spending the next two weeks in a Tulsa hospital.  I called her today to see how she was doing, and she told me a story that I had never heard--about when she and I were in the third grade.  That would have been in 1946.  And describes the inter-tangle  of friendships.  Convoluted.

Judy Cameron was  Carolyn's BFF when they were growing up.  They were both a year behind Suzanne and me in school.  I didn't know really know either of them at that time.  (Carolyn is now my dearest friend.)

Well, Carolyn has stayed in touch with Judy--who now has rheumatoid arthritis and can barely move. She recently was recently horribly burned--she couldn't move to get away from a space heater.  She has had numerous skin grafts and has been in the hospital for months and months.

I mentioned that to Suzanne while we were talking on the phone and Sue said, "I didn't really know Judy very well.  But my mother adored her.  When Judy was in the second grade, the teacher quit and they called my mom to take over.  And all of my life, my mom talked about Judy Cameron--how sweet she was.  Years later, when my mom was really old, one of her fondest memories was of teaching that second grade class.  And what a wonderful child Judy had been."

Sue told me.  I told Carolyn.  And Carolyn told Judy.  Frindships.  Convoluted.  Maybe it will cheer Judy up that someone from seventy years ago, Suzanne's mother, never forgot her.

Friends give our lives meaning.