"A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else." -- Len Wein

It started innocently really...my boss reads the obits everyday and asked if we knew a Patricia Frey from the small town I live in. My heart lept even as my thoughts went back years. Pat Frey was the name of my childhood bestfriend Crystal's mother. It only took a call to the funeral home to confirm that it was indeed the correct Pat Frey. I was shocked, sick, sad and estatic all at once. I can hear you now...questioning if I even have a heart...what kind of pyschopath would be estatic over the death of another human being. That is a good question and one that I actually felt a bit of guilt over even as the feelings sprung to life.

You see...Crystal lives in NH now with her wonderful husband, Bruce and their son Brady. We don't get to see one another very often and truth told I think the last time I saw her, 2 years ago, was the last time we talked. As with always the moment we saw one another it was as if we had never been apart. We both promised we would call...keep in touch...not let it be so long. Months passed...then some how it was years and well then it just felt awkward. What do you say when you call? "I think of you often but I can't be bothered to pick up the phone." ??? So it just stretches on until one day in the obits...you find out shes home. She is home.

Home for one of the most painful reasons a person can fathom. Home...staying with her sister who lives less then 1/2 mile from me...is actually the very next residence on our road. Home...without a word...without a call. If my boss hadn't have asked would she have went back to NH without a word? Have we grown so distant that she thought I couldn't or wouldn't want to be there for her? More disturbing thoughts.

My boss let me go over to the funeral home today on work time to pay my respects. My stomach was in knots. I HATE funerals with a passion and I had no idea what to say. What if she didn't want me there? I walked in and stopped in the door way to search the room. I spotted her immediately..my eyes drawn to her as always...always aware of the other...like sisters. Her face registered a flicker of surprise and then it was blank again. We stared across the length of the room for a long moment. Nervously I offered a smile. The barest of smiles was my return. My hand shook as I turned to sign the guest register. When I turned back she had not moved. I made my way across the seemingly endless length of the room and stopped in front of her...seated next to her grieving father...still silent and blank. I had no idea what to say. Words seemed so inadequate. "I just heard this morning. I am so sorry." I said lamely. She rose to her feet and opened her arms and it was...as if we had never been apart. 

It's sad really that something like this is needed to bring us back together. We made the promises again, both confessing guiltily that we had waited too long to call then just wern't sure what to say. I hope that THIS time we will really stay in touch. Life is too short. What if the next time one of us lay in the front of the funeral home and we can't just pick up where we left off? It's sad that something like this is necessary. It is pathetic that I felt that flare of hope and excitement at the EXCUSE to see her...but it happened. Life is too short to dwell on it.

~Hussy