This episode is about the value of friendship and family. As I said in episode five I was off to Dallas for our yearly get together with my “BFF” college friends. My suggestion on living well was to always stay close to your best friends so that your life will be enriched and filled with the love that only a best friend can give.
from left to right: Sally, Sylvia, Starr, and Sylvia’s new dog Jake. In the back row: myself
We now feel eighty after taking this picture. We messed up the “order” of our yearly photograph. So now when we show all the years this one will be in reverse. Does it really matter, at eighty you can do whatever you want. Can’t you?
This year our visit was particularly special as we excitedly anticipated seeing each other. We enjoyed four days of games, entertainment and great food. We walked and talked and spent a great deal of quality-time sharing about our families and our lives.
We also needed unconditional support with family concerns and cherished the insights given. We cried a little for the struggles each of us were having. These interactions between us were profound and positive in the way only “BFF” friend can give. We felt stronger and more settled in just the four wonderful days we spent being together. We can’t wait until next year to once again experience that special time only “BFF” friends can encounter together.
This is the value of friendship and why it is so important to keep those long lasting friendships close to your heart. No one understands you more than those friends. They have walked in your shoes; so to speak, all through the years you have known each other. Your children haven’t walked those miles with you so they don’t understand your fears, your values, your dreams, but your close friends do. Close friends are your blanket of love and understanding like no others. Keep them close!
I arrived home in time to celebrate Mother Day with my family. Since family is the other focal point in this blog it’s important for me to describe my three children and the ways they are my rock and my reason for living.
I have three wonderful and accomplished children. I am blessed and feel God and my special angel “Sandy” kissed me from above. Sandy has been my guardian angel since she left this world in 1948. I always felt she sat on my right shoulder and looked after my children and help guide them and me through this uncertain world.
When I held my first child Jete’ in my arms I thought life could not be more complete until my son Duke arrived the next year. I had the perfect family a girl and a boy. Life was good! Surprise, surprise two years later we had a third bundle of joy Rene’e. Each of my children has given the world three children. My grandchildren have brought a sense of purpose and meaning and excitement to all of our lives.
My three children have remained close but not without a struggle. Sometimes we have to pray and seek guidance to overcome conflicts and hard feelings. However each one of my children brings a unique perspective to the family dynamics that only she or he can bring. I can’t imagine my life without seeing them, hearing them, speaking with them, loving them. They are the reason I wake up in the morning and have sweet dreams at night. They are my blessings! Thank you God!
From left to right: Katy, a sophomore at Savannah School of Art, Jete’. Claire, a sophomore at University of Kentucky. in the back: Tommy and Ryan, who graduates this June from the University of Denver.
From left to right: Anita, Duke, Gunner and Dennis. Anita is a freshman in high school and loves dance. Gunner a freshman at Stanford, Dennis in the seventh grade and loves baseball.
From left to right: Christian a Sophomore at Savannah school of art, the newly weds Max and Bailey, they were married this past November and are young professionals, Craig,Rene’e, and Parker a senior at Ole Miss, and their wonderful dogs Bear, River, Whiskey.
Katy is Eighty 