Keep the Old

Vickie and Dave moved in next door when their youngest daughter, Randi, was 18 months old, exactly one week older than our Jane. When you are growing up, it just doesn’t get any better than having your best friend live right next door. The girls went through all kinds of milestones together: kindergarten, Brownies, going away to camp. They played basketball, coached by Randi’s dad, and swam on the local team for about seven years. They gave up swim team when they reached the age where they were expected to practice at 6:30 AM. At that point teenage love of sleep won out over athlete’s love of the sport.

As the years went on, the girls made more friends, developed different interests and were no longer inseparable. But they still had that special bond that you can only have with someone you have known all your life.

It seems like it was just a few years later that the girls were graduating from high school. There is a special section of the high school yearbook for which parents are invited to submit candid photos of their graduate with a parting wish or bit of wisdom as they leave high school. At the time the pictures were due, my mother who lived with us passed away. The picture was forgotten as I was taken up with all that surrounds the death of a parent.

I never gave the yearbook another thought until Jane came home, smiling and thanking me for the great entry. That’s when I saw what Vickie had done for both of our girls. Two generations of extraordinary friends enjoyed a beautiful thought! Yes that's the entry that appeared in the yearbook.

copyright © Dianne Morr