Girl With A Towel

"Are you and Ms. Rebecca close Mama?" my Emily says to me this morning while we were getting ready to visit my old best friend. I explain, "She is a special type of friend. I could not talk to Rebecca for years and the minute we see each other it is as if not a moment has past." I feel so lucky to have a friend like that. And just as predicted, from the moment we hugged until the moment I left we did not stop for a minute.

One day about 22 years ago my family moved from New York to Florida. On a typical 1986 hot summer night in Florida my brother and I were playing in our new pool, making lots of noise, as I have been known to do. After I whizzed down our new shiny blue pool slide I pop up out of the water and standing in front of me was a little girl in her bathing suit holding a towel. "My name is Rebecca, I live across the street. Do you want to be friends?" From that moment on she has been my best friend.

We went through high school together, including all the fun that accompanies that time of life. You know, great hair cuts, terrific choices in boys, speeding tickets and other late night happenings that I would rather not share (my girls are big fans of Catholic Mommy2Five). After High School I followed her to Gainesville. She fell in love with horses and I fell in love with Pete.

We are both grown up now. She followed the track that we all knew would be her destiny, something that would involve being called Dr. I on the other hand sometimes shock people with the person I turned out to be, myself included!