My Friend, Erin

This morning I talked to my friend, Erin. Actually, we were STILL talking this afternoon. We schedule our phone calls-once about every two years, and just set the day aside to get caught up! Erin came into my life when I was 13. I had just moved from Arizona to Lancaster, CA, knew no one, had a new church, new school, new step-dad. We went to high school together and were active in the youth choir at our church together. We loved each other's parents, and either home was as much home as the other. We laughed a lot together. Lancaster had a lot of "round" driveways. That would best be explained as a circular drive, I guess. We used to think it was great fun to just drive through town and drive through random round driveways and honk as we'd go through. We did this a lot the year I learned to drive. She is a year older than me and that year she would let me "practice" driving often, of course neither set of parents knew this, and probably never did know it. We are both "orphans" now. Both sets of parents are gone. Somehow, it seems we are just blood related, simply because of all the shared life experiences. She was a part of everyday of my life for many years. We used to drink instant tea (I don't know HOW we ever did that!) and Erin thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. She would come over just to drink our tea. She loved vanilla wafers, and we always kept a stash for her. She went on our family outings to pick our Christmas trees. She spent the night the Christmas that I got an electric blanket with duel controls for my bed and we hooked it up, thinking life was going to be great now! Only problem was that we had switched the controls and one of us froze all night and kept turning it up, while the other nearly died from heat all night, wondering what in the world had happened! Erin wasn't much for medicine, especially if it didn't taste good. I tried my hardest, every way I could think of to get Nyquil down her. It always spewed everywhere. We're nearing 35 years of stories. She lives in Montana now, so many miles come between us. But, through thick and thin, no matter the distance between, we just ARE. We've watched each other's lives grow and change. College, marriage, weddings, kids, kid problems, kids leaving the nest, and we've shared our faith. We always talk about what the Lord has been doing in our lives. I don't have another friend that I have known this long. She wins the prize! There is great security in knowing that after all these years, I don't think either of us is going anywhere. We'll always be there for each other, no matter what is going on in our lives, no matter the distance between us or the time that lapses between those marathon phone calls!