Best friends

I know the photo quality is terrible but the original is rather faded and this is a “picture of a picture”.  This is me (on right) and my dear cousin, Sue, on the first day of school in 1968.  She was starting kindergarten and I was going into first grade.  Yes, our mothers often dressed us alike.  We spent much of our childhood living next door to one another and doing virtually everything together.  Sue wasn’t just my cousin; she was my best friend.

Fast forward 43 years (whoa! 43 years?!) and we still have a special relationship.  She lives in the city, has three children and works several days a week as a physical therapist.  Distance and time constraints mean we don’t get a chance to be together much these days but when we do it’s just like old times.  Her birthday was a couple of weeks ago and after consulting our schedules we found a day to get together and celebrate when she wasn’t working and I didn’t have a meeting to attend.

Yesterday I drove to the city and we met for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  The food was good but the conversation was better.  And we shared a piece of chocolate cheesecake which was to die for!  After a lengthy lunch we still weren’t through visiting so I followed her back to her house where we chatted a few more hours.  I think we could have talked way into the night like we used to as little girls when we would spend the night at Grandma’s house.  Back then the only thing stopping us was Grandma saying, “Girls, hush that talking; it’s time to go to sleep.”  Now we have kids and husbands and other responsibilities so I finally left her house at nearly 7 p.m.

I think we both realized how much we have missed each other so we made a promise to one another to make time for this more often.  In fact, I’m checking my calendar right now.  Love you, cuz!