My dad text messaged me last night. I knew immediately it was not good news. If you knew my dad's opinion on text messages, you'd understand. Though he's expressed it more strongly, suffice it to say he thinks they are useless and annoying.
I was braced for bad news; expecting the worst. But nothing, not even a text message from my dad, could have prepared me for the words he said after he asked me if I was sitting down.
Beth met Tammy freshman year of high school. Almost as soon as they met, they were inseparable. Tammy became a part of our family and Beth a part of hers. I remember carting them around to and from school and various activities until Tammy got her license...then I remember hardly ever seeing my sister.
When they fought it was always the "end of the world" on one side or another, but their fights had this odd way of making the afterglow, a stronger bond, so much sweeter. They grew together through some unimaginable experiences. The awkward flowering of womanhood absorbed by each others' common or dissimilar experiences.
They vacationed together, got drunk together, toilet papered houses of boys on the soccer team at 3 the morning together. They moved for college and changed their minds, holding to the other in transitions at every bend and twist. Two and a half years ago Beth stood on the stood on a beach in Oahu as Tammy gave her vows to her husband. Soon after there was the thrill of a baby on the way that kept them busy planning showers and shopping. They celebrated the birth of Tammy's son, Timmy Lee. Life drew on them and from them in different ways - on one the responsibility of a nurse, on the other that of a wife/mother. As life went on, so did they.
And only this much I know. Undoubtedly, I don't know everything, but I do know they were not just good friends, they were the best kind of friends.
Last night when my dad text messaged me, I was braced for the worst. I knew there was no way there would be good news on the other end. But never, never did I expect to hear that my sister's best friend is dead.
Back in college, in 2004 when blogging was hardly even a thing yet, I was here. Blogging before blogging meant anything to anyone. You can look in the archives for my past writings, but it was much more like a journal in the past. When we started fundraising, I messed around with the idea of launching something new for this new phase of our journey but actually hated that idea. I am a sum of all of my life and so much of it is here already. So I'm keeping it here. At least for now.
My main focus these days is blogging about our newest journey into the bizarre and wonderful world of gestational surrogacy. Posts dated 2013 and forward will trend heavily toward that journey. I don't promise everything I write will be about though. There might be other things that sneak in occasionally.
Please come along our journey with us. As the saying goes, "The more, the merrier!"
No comments:
Post a Comment