To my sweet friend in heaven

Dearest Friend,

I'd give anything right now if I had visited with you again because you were always on my mind, and in my thoughts and in my prayers. You just seemed so very tired, yet being the gracious hostess and friend you always were, felt that you needed to keep up the conversation. I wanted to let you rest (told myself we were in the way and that you were in far more capable hands) but now I'd give anything for just one more visit or at least a phone call to heaven. How awesome would that be if we could all be granted a phone call or a special postage-stamp-to-heaven when someone we love enters. Could you speak to someone about that when you get a chance? ;)

You were an extrovert, a talker, a put-everyone-right-at-ease-with-your-down-to-earth-I-never-meet-a-stranger personality which I think is one of the reasons I was so drawn to you from the very beginning.  As you know, I've never been the most verbal person (an introvert to the core) and although I told you I loved you the last time I saw you, there was so much left unsaid...

Thank You, for starters. 

Thank you for walking into our shop (and into my life) that day, nearly fifteen years ago, with your always vibrant, welcoming smile and personality to match. 

Thank you for not laughing when I called you in a panic a couple of days later (even though you weren't supposed to start until the next week) asking (okay practically begging) you to come NOW because Dana was at home sick with a migraine, the van was in the shop and I was in so far over my head that I couldn't even see the surface, must less swim to it. 

Thank you for making me feel like a ginormous boulder had been lifted from my shoulders when you showed up within minutes in your little Mitsubishi that we wasted no time loading down with funeral orders, vases of flowers and even a giant bouquet of balloons that completely blocked your view out of the back. 

And thank you for not running for the hills after that! 

Thank you for befriending little Devin, taking him under your wing and entertaining him in the shop and eventually outside of it, coming to his (and later Dracen's too) birthday parties and baseball games and football practices, and for treating him as if he were your very own grandson. He remembers. 

Thank you for being there through my darkest hours of grief, for all those times you showed up at my door to not only check in on us but to take care of us. 

Thank you for straightening up my house,  doing my laundry, playing board games with the boys and me (I'll never forget that night of the never-ending game of Chutes and Ladders), bringing me fresh eggs from your chickens (sometimes deviled...yum) and those delicious strawberry pies you made. 

But mostly, thank you for just being there.

Thank you for riding over an hour away with me that night to the animal hospital to visit my very sick little Dachshund, Dexter (who died while we were there), even though you'd been crying all day after having your beloved cat, Buffy, put to sleep that very morning. 

Thank you for coming back the next day with your sweet Dave and helping me bury him underneath that big tree in my yard.  

Thank you for supporting me when I ventured back out into the terrifying world of dating, staying with the boys and laughing (or sometimes crying) with me when I returned home to tell you all about my dates. 

Thank you for all those hours we spent talking on the phone about this, that, nothing and everything.  

And thank you for being there and so genuinely happy for me on the day I got married again. 

Thank you for praying for and talking to Devin back when we were going through that rough patch with him, even though you yourself were fighting cancer. He's making me a proud mama these days. 

Thank you for being the kind of person and Christian that I was proud, blessed and honored to call my friend. It was evident at your funeral (not that I didn't already suspect it) that I and my family weren't the only ones blessed and made to feel special by you. You really made your rounds and I am certain you left this world a better place for having been in it.

Thank you for the million and one memories. I will cherish and hold them (and you) close to my heart always. 

You were truly a Godsend to me. 

Until we meet again, my sweet friend...

Until me meet again,