Wednesday's Walk ~ As We Always Were

Last week I attended the funeral of my dear friend's grandmother.  Both the funeral service and burial were held very close to where my friend grew up, however its been 18 years since she lived there.  It'd been a while since I'd traveled those roads and, within the context of the day, it really brought me back to another time.


This particular gas station is where my friend's dad would take us for really good soft-served ice cream.  We passed the pizza place where we ordered from on many occasions.  We passed the softball field where I broke my wrist while our school teams were playing against each other.  Her all-girls Catholic highschool where she left her mark and where I went to basketball games to cheer her on from the bleachers.  So many memories.


The next day we sat over breakfast and coffee, something we do every chance we get, and talked about life as we now know it.  Its hard to explain...though we are not sisters, when I am with her I often think of this quote:

To the outside world we all grow old.  But not to brothers and sisters.  We know each other as we always were.  We know each other's hearts.  We share private family jokes.  We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys.  We live outside the touch of time.  ~Clara Ortega


Though we are both operating in the grown-up world, raising children of our own and being wives to our amazing men who share the same name, we both know, deep down, we are still those young teenagers who laughed together, cried together, those girls who walked with each other through very dark times and the best of times.  


At the funeral, I watched a poised 30-something woman, full of grace and beauty eulogize her grandmother...I stood in amazement at the journey we've been on to bring us from those silly girls who found plenty of harmless trouble to where we are today. 


We've always been an unlikely couple...though we share many of the same core values, we are so very different in many ways.  Somehow, we've always seen the beauty in those differences and loved the other more because of them.  I think it is rare in a lifetime to find a friend so dear and I have had the privilege of calling her friend these 22 years. Thank you, Shelva Jean.