Friendship

Friendships are very important. And some friendships come along once in a lifetime. This is Pam and she is one of my once in a lifetime friends. I met Pam over 30 years ago when our children were younger. We had built a home and she lived across the alley from us. I remember the first time I met her. She couldn't have been 100 lbs dripping wet. Our children had been playing together, usually in our back yard and she came over to introduce herself as their mom. :) Little did we know that was to be the beginning of a very special friendship and bond. Soon after that we became Sisters in the Lord and the friendship took off. We were together all the time. It would not be uncommon for a friend looking for one of us to call the other's home looking for us. lol Garage sales, car pooling kids to school, Bible Study, praying together, etc. Friends that were there for one another.

1 PM in the afternoon, "Pam, there's been an accident and Markie is at the hospital. Can you come over quick and stay with the girls so I can get down there?"

12:30 AM "PAM! Something is wrong with Lissa. She is having seizures! We have to get her to the hospital!!! Can you get over here quick and stay with the kids???"

You know! The friend that is there thru thick and thin. Spring comes and I make my first macaroni salad of the season. "Hey, Pam. I made my black ant salad (it had black olives in it so we joked). You guys come on over for dinner tonight!" Then the snow days! The kids sledding down at the school - Let's potluck! Friday night family get together time. Library movies and popcorn. Talking till all hours of the night! Laughing, sharing, praying. Adventures? Oh yes, we had those too! December 1977 - they were planning a trip to California for Christmas. Randy had made a camper for their truck.


Pam: Why don't you come with us?

Me: We don't have a trailer!


Pam: Well, let's look for one in the classifieds!


Me: We don't have a car to pull it!


Pam: Use our station wagon, it has a hitch!


So we purchased a NON selfcontained (that means no potty!) 16' trailer and set off in the dead of winter for a 2 week vacation. Our 4 children at the time and our daughterlike friend and us in a stationwagon and the trailer. Move forward to Christmas day - sitting in a bowling alley parking lot (a place that Pam and her hubby haunted years earlier when they dated) saying: "OK, what do we do next?" "Let's go visit Gene and Randa!!!" Oh... did I mention this was DECEMBER and Gene and Randa live in MONTANA!~!! 4 flat tires, EVERY one getting sick, a side trip off the road into the snow and having to get towed out just minutes away from our destination, we ended up on our friends' door step! LOL yes, Adventure. Seemed to follow our travels! A friend always there. Friends are a gift from God.

Ah, but life happens. God called them away to Iowa and a tearful goodbye. And we had another adventureous trip out to Iowa in 1980. The Mountain had just blown, we rented a motor home and started off halfway across the states to spend 3 weeks with our friends..... Just mom and dad and our 5 kids. 4 blowouts on the motorhome, an alternator repair, barely missing the historic 12 tornadoes that touched down in Grand Island, Nebraska, a quick side trip to drive by my childhood home in Lincoln and in the middle of a storm, we finally arrived at our IOWA destination. Picnics, time at Six (?) Flags in Des Moines, tours and our time was over and headed home again. They came back to Washington 4 years later but live several hours from us. We visited when we could but family and life kept us both busy. The friendship? Still there .... one where you can see each other and just pick up right where you left off. It had been 12 years or better since I have talked or seen Pam, although she has never been far from my thoughts. MANY MANY times, over the years, I have longed for my friend to visit with and pray with......quiet tears of missing her... only a phone call away but we had just drifted apart....

Recently, my daughters had been posting some older pictures on Facebook. When looking at some of them I saw a pic of Pam's daughter and low and behold, Tracy had tagged it and Tammy was on Facebook! I sent a friend request and waited and watched. Soon, it was accepted. As soon as I saw that I hightailed it over to Tammy's homepage to check out her friends and there was PAM! Sent a friend request and soon it was accepted and a message on my wall. Wrote back.... got her phone number... the following Saturday.... 2 or more hours on the phone catching up. I had FORGOTTEN how we could talk. And of course we never really caught up because one thing leads to another and the first story never gets completed before the next topic gets talked about! HA! Oh... more tears of pure joy. Have we gotten together yet? No not yet. Life and family is still there... when one is the pastor of a church and the other has tons of grandkids with activities going on, it will take time to coordinate our special time together. But it will happen. That bond that the Lord gave us YEARS ago is still there. We will always have a special place in each others hearts and there will be time for us and we won't drift again. Do you have a special friend like this? Cherish that friend. Thank God for that friend. I know I do! "A friend loves at all times."