In about two weeks, i will finally be going to see my best friend, who lives roughly two and a half hours away. WE met through camp, and quickly became best friends. I have been fortunate to be best friends with quite a few people. ANother friend from cornwall is Tracey and i have known her for thirteen years, and we always talk about , "when we're older", and if we'll go our seperate ways. I think we'd like to hope not, but we never know. AS for my other best friend in the states, her and i hardly ever see each other, but we make an effort to call all the time, and write letters. Have any of you still kept in touch with old best friends, or what are some of your fondest memories with your best friends?

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), October 26, 2001

Answers

My absolutely "bestest" friend is Patti. She and I met when our children were in nursery school. I was new to the area and had no family here except my two children and husband. We just "clicked" instantly and have been close ever since. We "adopted" each other and each other's children. We did the usual "children" and "school" things and as we got older, we starting doing the "grandmother" things too. A few years ago, she went through a divorce and of course, I was with her every minute. WHen she re-met her college sweetheart and they married, I was her matron of honor. We've been together through deaths, weddings, babies, husbands and everything else life throws at you. After she re-married, she moved about an hour away so we don't see each other as much or talk on the phone as much but we do e-mail just about every day and see each other at least once a month for a girl's day out. I miss her terribly but am happy that she has made a new life for herself. We'll always be bestest friends.

Isn't it funny how you and your best friend can find the dumbest things so funny. Even years later, we can still laugh til tears run down our faces of some of those early memories.

One of my warmest memories is the time (not too long ago) just the two of us spent three days in my cabin in Vermont playing Yatzee and Phase 10. The rule was we'd only get up from the game table to eat and pee. We played and talked and talked and talked and talked some more. She's the kind of person to whom you can tell anything and know it's safe. She loves me at my best and at my worst. Not a day does by that I don't miss her.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (aka Dianne in Mass) (trevilians@mediaone.net), October 26, 2001.

We have moved around so much that I never got the chance to make a life-long best friend. I have several best friends in different states, but I don't get to keep up with everybody. When we went to Georgia this summer, I got to renew friendships with people I hadn't seen in 10 years. While living in New York the Lord blessed me with a friend who lives close enough to see almost once a month, instead of once every 4-5 years. Her name is Lori, and she has become a real sister to me. The funniest thing about this friendship is that I met her husband over a can of beer! The children and I made a totally unplanned trip to Wal-Mart one day, and as we were getting out of the van, Nathanael saw an unopened can of beer. I told him to put it under the rear wheel so we could run over it when we drove out. It so happened, however, that the can rolled away when we backed out. Being in one of my zany moods, I decided to drive around to see if I could hit it. Then when it rolled under a pickup, I called it quits. I put the van into reverse and was about to turn around, when this guy walks up from behind and asks, "Is that a BBN [Bible Broadcasting Network] bumper sticker on the back of your van?" We got to talking about our beliefs, homeschooling, home birthing (I had two home births, and Lori was about to have her first), etc. Within days we had Lori and Allan and their two boys at our house for dinner and a remarkably close friendship grew almost overnight. They were the ones to really get us going on homesteading, but there is more to the story. Not only did the Lord give us some really great friends, but it was through them that we found out about this church here in Cornwall. By the time their baby was a year old, Tom had become the pastor here. Now, you can't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humour when He uses a can of beer to bring about His plan for us! We still talk about that day at Wal-Mart.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 26, 2001.

My Very best Friends name is Johnny. He lives away but we have been writing each other since I was 11 years old. I have told him everything. And he doesn't judge me just gives advice and lets me make my mistakes on my own. And then is there to pick up the pieces.

-- mindy (speciallady@countrylife.net), October 29, 2001.