My Very First Best Friend...

Her name was Kristi Jo and on that day, she became my very first best friend. Kristi’s family had just moved into the new house across the street from mine and though we would have only been 4 or 5 years old, my mom encouraged me to go over and ask her to play. That was just how we rolled in the early 1970’s – kids of all ages were safe to cross the street, safe to play in the neighborhood, and safe to enjoy being kids. She had the blondest hair I had ever seen and, I would come to know, that it would always be styled in curly pigtails secured with jeweled pony tail holders or tied with colorful yarn ribbons. I walked across the street and we eyed each other with a bit of suspicion and apprehension, like all children do when they first meet. But we then saw that we both had the same doll – “Baby Tenderlove” – and so we bonded immediately. She became my first best friend that day.

We had many days and many first adventures together. We grew up playing barbies and school and dress-up, hide and seek, tag, building snowforts, sledding, and swinging on our red swingset. We had the same first bikes – with banana seats, high curved handle bars with colorful pink streamers, white wicker baskets on front, and tall orange flags on the back so we could be seen by cars. We rarely played indoors. We always played together. Eventually, our games changed - “spin the bottle” with the neighborhood boys, and, more importantly, hours spent just talking and sharing a million little secrets. We learned so much from each other - she taught me about being a friend.

As the years went on, we grew apart as people often do – different schools, different friends, different experiences. But, in a small town, we were lucky to run into each other fairly often and we could catch up on each other’s lives. Seeing her face across a crowd and hearing her amazing laugh always felt like “home” to me.

On another day, I learned she had passed away. That day, I lost my very first best friend. She was much too young to die. I attended the funeral as did so many whose lives she had touched in her time here. All the friends gathered there had known her at different times in her life, some as adults, some as teenagers, and some, like me, as small children. We all grieved.

I remember both days so clearly. That day that I first met her. That day that I said a final good-bye. Although, our lives are filled with these kinds of days – somehow the important ones are remembered. We were blessed to have had many days together to play outside in the sunshine, to laugh together, and to grow up together. I think about Kristi often. She became my very first best friend on that day when we were not even old enough to write our own names. On that day, I was very blessed.

 

 

Tomorrow, January 11, will be Kristi's birthday and I will be thinking of her. Happy birthday, Kristi, and thank you for your friendship...