THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR

Above is a picture of me with 5 other women who have been my friends for over 21 years. From left to right are Cary, Julie, Fran, Me, Lorraine and Carol.

What a lot the word FRIEND covers.

We started out as a Mom's in Touch group in September of 1990. My youngest had just started Kindergarten. I remember that I kept hearing a woman's laugh outside of the school whilst I was in the office, doing volunteer work. I loved hearing that laugh and finally found out who she was. It was Fran and she invited me to join the group. I gladly accepted, having no idea what a huge part of my life the women I was about to meet would become.

Our reason for meeting together was to pray for our kids and their teachers. And we did. But it became much more than that... we prayed for everything that was going on in our lives. Women came and went from the group over the years but the six of us remained steadfast. I moved away for 6 years but continued to join in when I was back in town and always stayed in touch with the core group of friends I had made. As soon as I moved back into the area, it was as if I had never left. Once all of our kids were graduated high-school we, in theory, should have disbanded the group - which at that point was just the six of us as it had been for several years. But there was no way we wanted to quit meeting. And we still had lots to pray about. Some of our kids were in relationships we weren't sure were right for them. Some were about to be married; others now had kids of their own; some were having trouble making career choices; others had just lost their jobs; some were still struggling in desperate ways. LOTS to pray about. And besides, we had become such good friends - some closer than others; it seems that we tended to pair off a bit outside of the group. Me with Fran, Carol with Cary, and Julie with Lorraine (their husbands worked together and they'd been friends before the group so that was only natural). I spent a lot of time with Carol as well as we lived just a few blocks apart. We each really wanted to keep meeting as a group. So we did.

We have seen each other through so many many things; wayward teens, divorce, death, marriages, births, illness, scary hospital visits, and the horrible empty nest syndrome. I know that I could call any one of them any time of day or night and if I needed them to come, they'd be over in a heartbeat. Sometimes they come even when I don't ask. Fran has driven me to the airport at 2:30 am. She went with me to the hospital when I had to go for a colonoscopy. I took meals to her once a week for a few months when she was devastated over the death of her mother. Cary and Carol helped me move out of my house when I left my husband. I pushed Carol into sorting through all the stuff she'd collected over the years which FILLED her garage, and spent days in there going through it all with her. And that's just a small sample of things I know about. I don't know what all each of the women have done for another but I know that in 21 years, it's been lots. And every single thing has been a gift.

I love these women. I hope we have at least 21 more years together.