Something that you don't hear a whole lot of anymore are huge, long-term friendships that sustain crazy obstacles and still manage to come out strong and full of love. There are lots of people who maintain close friendships throughout their lives with people from high school, which is great because high school is a very important time for a lot of people and they meet very influential friends during that time (unlike me who only learned one thing from high school - high school sucks!). No, I met one or two amazing core friends in high school who I love and adore to this day and will love and adore until the end of time.
But what I am really talking about here is a friendship that I have had with a certain someone since I was 5 years old. My life-long best friend Gill (one of the many Sarah's in my life...this one has just known me the longest and I always call her Gill). Her and her mom moved to Rivervale from Colville, Washington, when I was 5. I don't know how long it took for us to become attached at the hip, but I'm thinking the attachment occurred quite soon after they joined the neighbourbood. Well, technically we could never really be attached at the hip because she was always a good foot shorter than me. Gill basically became my 3rd sister immediately since she was always at our house, sleeping over all of the time and eating many meals around our kitchen table. Oh, and if you ever invite her over to eat, make sure you have plenty of time allotted for meal time because she is the slowest eater I have ever met in my life. She always had weird little food idiosyncrasies, like peanut butter on pancakes.
I remember the day she moved away like it was yesterday. I walked over to her house really early that morning, three houses down the street, with a huge bag of Fuzzy Peach candies in my pocket (her favourite) because I knew that you can't buy them in the states. I remember standing around and watching them do the last minute packing that had to be done, and then hugging her with every ounce of energy that I had. I walked home feeling numb, knowing that my best friend was moving back to the US and that I might never see her again. That thought was terrifying. I went into the house, walked downstairs, put in a sad movie and cried for 2 hours straight. How do you enter high school and start dating boys without your best friend to support you along the way? Plus I forgot to give her the Fuzzy Peaches.
Now she lives just outside of Seattle with her husband and 2.5 children (baby #3 is due on June 15th). I was in her wedding party when she got married and have been down there to visit a few times. Definitely not nearly as many times as I would like to, but we do try to stay in touch as much as we can. Two summers ago she surprised me with a visit up to Canada with the whole family, which was amazing. She has such a fantastic family and I am so happy that they will be having another son so soon. Weekly emails keep us up to date with the silly details of each others lives (we both live vicariously through each other I think. I learn about husbands and kids and she learns about...well... I have no idea what she gets out of me to tell you the truth). LOL. Maybe she'll tell me after she reads this.
I guess this is my tribute email to my life-long friend Gill. I wish I could live three houses down from you again and spend my days waiting to see your ponytail bobbing back and forth as you lope down the street to my house to visit. I love you to death and can't wait to come and visit this summer.
Tip of the Day: Friendship is like a good bra: hard to find, supportive, comfortable, always lift you up, makes you look better and always close to your heart.
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