BFF. Best Friends Forever for the older crowd who haven't quite mastered the lingo of the younger less talkative, less imaginative, and oh yes, less literate than most of us old folk. But I digress, forgive me please!
What makes a BFF, well in most cases it is the person sitting next to you in jail while you wait for someone to bail your butt out of jail, nudging you saying, "That was a blast, we need to do it again, but let's not get caught the next time!" or the one holding your hand as chemo drips into your body to kill the cancer that is eating you alive; or last but not least, it is the person that has been there through thick and thin no matter what, no matter where, no matter when.
That is the way it was with my mom, and her best friend Terri. Mom and Terri were born on the very same day, hours apart. They were closer than sisters, each of them had sisters, both of them had two each. They learned about life together, walked to school together, married Marine's, Terri's husband Jules & my father Ralph were best friends (best friends marrying best friends how could it get any better?). Both Terri and my mom weathered their husbands fighting in WWII, not knowing (yes I said NOT knowing) whether they were alive or dead on any given day.
Terri stayed in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio and raised a family; while my mom and dad moved to his hometown of Syracuse, New York to settle down and raise a family. They never failed to get together during the summer when my mom & dad would travel to Ohio so my mom could visit her family. Never once did a birthday go by that they didn't call one another (back then a long distance phone call was a huge thing). As the years went by, Jules passed away, then my father, but the girls (as they called themselves) never wavered in their friendship or love for one another.
Last month, Terri met again with the love of her life Jules, and saw her best friend Jane. You see the best friends are together again, talking, sipping coffee, laughing, exchanging photos, while sitting at God's kitchen table. You see best friends never end, ever. They go on into heaven.
Rest well, mom & Terri, you are a credit to your families, whom learned that friendship is a bond stronger than blood, that lasts forever.
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