Friends

Ever have someone that you just "click" with right from the start? I had just moved into a new house and a neighbor from across the street, came over and brought me a chocolate cake. Sounds ordinary, normal, even common courtesy. She was anything but those things. I had some misgivings when she stood up her one year old son on my kitchen floor and tapped him on the forehead and told him to go forth and walk. Oh my, I had heard stories about the Holy Rollers and this one had already tempted me with chocolate cake....I could see deprogramming in my future. Her little one promptly plopped on his little tush and she looked up and said, "That never works", I smiled back and jumped into that friendship with both feet. I knew she was my kind of gal. Melanie has been an angel, co-conspirator, bad influence, partner in crime and best friend to me ever since.

We perfected the "Opps, I HAVE to have milk for the morning, since the kids are asleep, lets leave our husbands to watch the kids and run to the store at 10 pm and get it". These trips often involved sharing Cheddar Bites from Sonic, which we ate there and left the trash, so that there would not be any evidence against us. When we heard on the news that pharmaceutical companies were taking the alcohol out of children's medicines, we read every label to find out which one's still had it and stocked up. We lived out in the country and a toddler with a bad cold during a snowstorm is not the time to take a stand against alcohol in children's medications. My daughters had a small tent that they played in, when the new wore off and they were no longer interested in it, Melanie and I hid in it so we could have a few moments of peace and quiet. Good times.

We saw each other through births, deaths and frenzied "clean before company comes". She said she could always tell when my mom was coming to visit because I opened every curtain in my house so I had the most light to see to clean. (My mother is known for wiping out the inside of the dryer and sweeping the bricks of the house before company came.) When one or both of us was PMS'ing, we learned to signal each other with our curtains, open meant we were up and ready for a call or visit, closed meant, we were still in bed, a child was sick or we were just b*tchy and needed some space.

She saw me through my first husband, a divorce and then later a second marriage. I could count on her to tell it to me straight. She was my port in the storm, listening to hours of frustration and hurt, encouraging me to stand up for myself and my daughters. She sent her husband over my first night alone to change my locks, she went to court with me and she even watched over my ex when he came to get his things, arranging for me to be out of the house and eating pizza with her pastor.

We live in different states and don't talk as often as we would like but we can pick up the conversation just like it was yesterday that we talked instead of months ago. If everyone had just one friend like that, the world would be a lot more fun and a lot more secure.

Whatever this little post tells you about her, is not near enough.