Dear Friend

I have a very old, dear friend.  I don't talk to this friend very often, but when I do, it's like no time has passed.  We met in band in the 7th grade.  We both played the French Horn.  Apparently, I was not very nice to her.  I heard her tell someone that she lost her watch, so I told her I saw a watch in the hallway.  She described it to me, and I said, "That's the one I saw out in the hallway."  I never saw a watch in the hall.  I'm not sure why I acted that way.  A few weeks later I heard her mention her birthday.  It happened to be my birthday...and I told her so.  Because of previous events, she didn't believe me.  I'm not sure how I convinced her, but I did and we decided the next year we would have balloons delivered to each other at school.  Our next birthday rolled around and she was home sick with the chicken pox I received a delivery of balloons.  I had not done the same for her.

She has called me for the last 20 years on our birthday.  Including the one we just had 2 weeks ago.

We have lots and lots of silly memories.  Some of which were kept in a notebook that we painted, wrote in, and passed back and forth for a whole school year.

This dear friend of mine had major surgery on Friday.  She had a tumor removed from her spine.  Her husband has been taking care of her, and keeping everyone updated on her status.  As far as I know the tumor was not cancerous.  Which is good news.

I wish there was a way for her to know how much she means to me.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that feels this way about her.  I've been thinking of her, and praying for her.  I sent a small care package, in hopes of keeping her spirits up.  If it brought one smile to her, then it did it's job.

This note was part of the care package.  I stitched it all out to look like a piece of notebook paper, then folded and ironed it like we used to fold our notes in school.  I really hope it cheered her up, and I hope that maybe she has a small idea of how much she means to me.