I Remember....

Yesterday I got some really sad news. A friend of mine that I have known since childhood but have not talked to in about 10 years has passed away. She is only 36. She has one son who is about 18. The day turned into a feeding frenzy of phone calls to old friends to share the news and dig for any information about why she passed. Her mom, who is friends with my mom could barely get the words out that she had passed...on March 16th....and has already been burried. WHY? That was the big question..we were only told that it was under investigation.
Well, this morning I finally found out....suicide. She took her own life. What could she have been going through to decide this was it. I just don't know and will probably never know. But instead of tearing myself up about the why I decided to do this blog entry and write all the great things I remember about her and our friendship.

Janell....

She was my very absolute without a doubt best friend, BFF, sister, pal, confident and secret confider from about the age of 7-14. We spent the night numerous times at each others homes, swam in each others pools, watched the Thriller video every 15 minutes for about 3 hours while eating Doritos and Dr. Pepper, played soft ball together, went on field trips, girl scouts, trick or treating, birthday parties, hours of roller skating, rode bikes, did bike car washes, got the same rainbow shirts and knickers, visited her dad at the grocery store he managed and got a behind the scenes tour of the store, played Monopoly, vistited her grandparents, went to movies together, church and youth group, six grade camp, slumber parties, school dances, boyfriends, cheerleading, football games, jr. high graduation dresses, her collection of horses, her big sparklets jug of change that her dad would fill for her, telephone calls, sticker books, Hello Kitty, trips to the mall, when she got chicken pox she only got three and they all left scars...one above her eye, sweet 16, millions of notes letters and cards and oh so much more.
We kinda drifted in high school and soon after graduation she met a guy who would later become the father of her child and husband. I attended her dental school graduation cermony, exchanged Christmas cards for a few years and then we just lost touch. I would get updates every now and then via my mom from her mom. There are three other friends from that original "group" that I am still in touch with and we tried to get in contact with her about a year ago to go to a group dinner reunion. I wish we would have tried harder.
So, if you have made it through this email....go run to your phone or address book quickly and look up those old friends that you keep saying you should call sometime and just do it. You never know what is really going on in someone elses life and just knowing that there is someone else out there that loves you and remembers the fun times like I have listed above is all it would take to keep that friendship alive.

One of my friends, Kim and I are getting together on Monday to go and lay flowers on her gravesite and plan to go to coffee afterwards to talk about the good old days.

I will remember Janell as the sweet childhood friend that I was blessed with knowing.