Friends and Life

The meaning of friendship: “Common bonds, such as choosing to be with one another, enjoying time spent together, and being able to engage in a positive and supportive role to one another.”

Friends in life take form through many events and connections. During those times we don’t make a plan for a lifelong friendship… it just happens.

I have a couple of school friends that I still stay in touch with. It is just a phone call once in a while, but those ties are still there. We have a history and we share those memories.

Each friendship is special in its own way. One of my lasting friendships has the history of our love of art. We have traveled together across Texas in the spring, searching out the best bluebonnet fields of the season. We have traveled the western states, enjoying the beauty of the rugged landscape, and using our cameras to hold those scenes in our memory for our artistic endeavors.

This trio—Dan, Neil, and Billy developed lasting friendships in the 1960s. The connection was made through business and church. There are so many memories that words cannot fully convey.

It’s friends counting on each other to step up when there is a need, or just standing by to give support in times of crisis. It’s remembering crazy times like fishing in a homemade car hood boat that might sink at any minute. Or, it’s sitting together in the early morning hours drinking coffee, and telling the same stories year after year.

And, then one day I sat in a quiet hospital room and watched my husband wipe tears from his eyes as he stood at the bedside of his dear friend—a friendship that covered 60 or more years. Life takes many turns during a lifetime, but true friends are forever.