Friends

Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

I am so blessed to have such awesome friends. Many of whom I have had since I was a little girl. The 6 girls you see in these pictures have been through a lot together!!

Two of them just this past week suffered the devastating loss of their father.  He went to high school with my parents, his parents went to church with my grandparents, he coached all of us in basketball, two of his three daughters were and are my best friends, he owned the local convenience store that will probably always be known around town by his name and not the name of the store.  I do not remember a time in my life when I haven't known him.  When his girls/my friends moved out of town, I had a standing invitation to his home to swim or visit and to bring my rowdy kids.  That's just how it is with friends.

Yet on Monday I walked up their driveway very slowly so I could take a few deep breaths and put a smile on my face knowing that when I walked over the threshold it would be different from the other one million times I had been welcomed into their home. And my friends needed me (or maybe I just needed to think I could offer a little comfort) and I needed to hold it together.

And that's how it is with friends.  We are all still friends but we don't see each other as often or talk as much as we did in that first picture.  But Sunday night for visitation we were all there - a coordinated effort for all of us to be in one place at one time and us six "Gloster Girls" rallied around our friends and hugged and smiled and recalled memories and in the days to come we will pray and we will call and we will be there for our sweet friends - well because that's just how it is with friends.  And I'm one very lucky girl to have friendships that have stood the test of time.

Praying for my sweet friends in their time of sorrow.