I cried all night. Probably the next day too. Everyone told me that I was going to win the beauty contest when I was six. I didn't. You did. We started school together. Kindergarten. In fact all four of us did. Not sure what we had in common. Elementary school was just okay for me. Two of us rode the bus to school and two of us didn't. We were in the same class some years and other years we weren't. You learned your multiplication facts like clockwork and I didn't. I remembered thinking and probably said, "How do you do that?" Recess was my thing. I loved it. We played chase. We swung. We climbed on the bars. Not sure but that might be when it happened. You were athletic and could run like the wind. You could draw well. I remember that tornado. You were popular. Everyone seemed to love you. Some of us made great grades and some of us not so great. One year in middle school we all ended up in the same science class. I'll never know how but we did. Remember that huge project? Our teacher let us leave the classroom every day and walk across the road to a wooded area to do our "hands-on" research. I think it had something to do with leaves. Tell you the truth I don't really remember. We were in our own little world though. A world that we created every day. Same time. Same place. It might have happened there. In middle school some of us got our first taste of what it was like to be a cheerleader. I think we were hooked forever. We had "spend the night parties." Birthday parties. Walks to the nearby store. You preferred soda and honey buns. I indulged in penny candy. Not long after that all our lives began to change. It was there that things got complicated at times. Our lives were interrupted by boys. By first love. Our friendship might have seemed a little distant at times. We all got married. Had babies. Went our separate ways. Took different paths. Only occasionally would they intercept. I remember our kids playing together. Your daughter getting married. My wedding the 2nd time around. I remember the funeral. I saw you there. We hugged so tight. I cried. And then after all those years we were all at the reunion together. All four of us. The first time in forty years. We planned a trip. Our very first trip together. All four of us. Not too far away. Just a little trip to a cabin in Georgia. We were in the car together on our way. And I think it was there that it happened. We knew. No words can really describe it. We just knew. We knew that God had brought us together after all those years "for such a time as this." It was perfect. Not too early. Not too late. Right on time. It was very clear that "you have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another"quote from CS Lewis had become ours. How could four girls from a small town in Florida continue to be friends after all those years? Since they were six years old. Through skinned knees and bruised elbows. Enough stuff to distance them forever. Broken roads for sure. But, broken roads that had been resurfaced. It didn't take long for us to see that. It was a sacred moment. It might have been in a car traveling north, but it was definitely a "take off your shoes your standing on holy ground kind of moment." I get chill bumps just thinking about it. I didn't realize that you were my soul mate when we built structures with the huge blocks in kindergarten. I didn't realize it when I went home with you and fell in love with your brother. Or when we cheered. Or the time we highlighted our hair. I didn't know that I would love, cherish, and appreciate you more than I could ever explain. I had no idea that I would see you as one of my most precious gifts from God. But, I do now.
I love you ❤
sammie jean
