My oldest and dearest friend, along with her mother and sister, came to visit me this past weekend.

Marie and I have been friends since we were second-graders. I'm not sure what started our friendship. In a lot of ways we are opposites.

She is sweet and somewhat innocent. I am less so. She is easygoing. I am more confrontational. She is a greeting card freak - always remembers my birthday. I never remember hers. I offer advice for her problems. She listens to mine but isn't much on advising.

Marie inspires me to be a calmer woman. I believe I inspire her to be more spirited. I tell jokes, she laughs.

So over the weekend we talked about life. We shared our joys and our concern for our children and grandchildren. And we talked about our husbands. We dug up ghosts from our elementary and high school years.

We shared our lives and compared our life-notes. Between us, there is no jealousy or envy. It never has mattered who had the nicest house or the nicest car or whose children were doing the best. We encourage and strengthen each other through good times and bad. We have been able to reach across bloodlines to become sisters.

So, we sat on my back porch and ate watermelon. We reminisced about old times and our lives before we were married church ladies...and laughed.

I cooked a big dinner -- fried chicken, baked fish, candied yams, yellow rice, greens, corn bread. We shopped by day and talked late into the night.

I noticed how easy it was for her to go in my purse when I handed her my debit card after pumping gas. I noticed how easy it was for her to slip on a pair of my shoes.

When it was time for her to leave, as she walked out the door, she said she had left something for me under the watermelon bowl in the kitchen. I assumed that my Hallmark-addicted friend had left a card saying thanks for the hospitality.

I was surprised to find that she had instead left $40. When I called to thank her and to protest that she shouldn't have done it, she went into a litany of reasons for the gift: "Girl, as nice as you have been to us…all the food you've cooked and giving us beds to sleep in and making everything so comfortable and nice…"

And while I appreciate the money, I hope she knows that a long time ago, she paid for a place in my heart and my home. I hope she knows what pride I take in saying that we have been best friends for these 46 years.

A long friendship like ours is like an old, worn sweater. It hangs there ready to warm us and is easy to slip into. It is a ready comfort against a chilly world. It is familiar. And though there may be a few holes or a snag in it here or there, it is your favorite because it has held you when you cried and enfolded you when you laughed.

I hope I have been the same for her.

Got news to share with Qcity readers? Email us at editor@qcitymetro.com.
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter below

Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Email: For Email Marketing you can trust

Other Ways to Share Twitter Del.icio.us MySpace

Discussions and Submission Agreement