My family moved about seven miles straight down a country road when I was four. We built a house up on a hill. And about a half of a mile down, the little dirt road happened to go right by my cousin's house. I couldn't have asked for a better path to friendship.

My cousin and I are four months apart in age. She was really my first playmate. Our mom's would get together and make sweet iced tea, take lunches to their husband's in the field, and we'd tag along. We rode our bikes down that country road and met halfway at the irrigation pump. We'd make castles in the old lumber and brick piles, and take turns pounding on our respective siblings .

We went to Elementary School together. We shared the same piano teacher and endured endless piano recitals. We suffered through Junior High, too. Somewhere in there, her mom and dad (my dad's brother) got a divorce. I remember my uncle taking off and my dad being the one to drive down that dirt road to their house to fix broken pipes, and once, to take a fried mouse out of my aunt's dryer.

Not long after, my aunt (who at the time had a teaching degree) decided to become an Elementary School Principal. She studied, got her degree, and they moved a few hours south of where we'd grown up together. It broke my heart. To think of someone new living in their house? Awfully hard.

We stayed in touch some through High School. I thought it was awesome that she lived in a bigger town, had (gasp!) fast food joints and a whole new selection of cute boys. She suddenly had all these new friends and I felt a little left in the dust.

After my dad died (the winter after we graduated High School), I didn't have anywhere to go. I didn't want to live anymore with my mom; she was taking her grief out on me with her fists. My cousin called one day and asked if I'd be willing to move in with her at the apartment she had in a city a few hours away.

I think I started packing before I finished the phone call.

I'll always be indebted to her for that chance, too. I was stuck in a pair of concrete shoes and didn't want where to go or what to do at that time in my life. She opened a door for me, and I never looked back.

She lives in Texas now. We're both married with a child. When we talk on the phone (like yesterday afternoon), it turns into a two hour laugh-fest. I always hang up knowing we had tons more to say.




"We've been friends forever. I suppose that can't be true. There must have been a time before we became friends but I can't remember it. You are in my first memory and all my best memories ever since." ~ Linda MacFarlane

Labels: love thursday