Friends along the way-Goldie!

In my journeys with my job taking me from state to state, I have had the opportunity to make some frinedships that would not have been possible if I had not moved. I have been laughed at before because I have so many "best friends", but its true...I have them in every place that I lived!

I am putting them in order of the length of the friendship.

Goldie: Where do I begin on her? I have known her for 29 years now. I met her when Tracey was 2, my mom was getting worse with her cancer and needed me to find another babysitter for Tracey. My mom had noticed kids in Goldies backyard (2 houses down from my parents house) so we asked her and she agreed to watch Tracey. It felt like we became friends instantly. And being my friend was not easy for the next few years, I had surgery when Tracey was 3 and she helped with that, my mom passed away when Tracey was 4 and she was such an important support for me through all of that. Tracey and I even lived with them for a time period and she still remained my friend! A year later, I offered to take their son Chris for the weekend so that they could celebrate their anniversary, a few months later we were driving to my uncles house to get some green beans and potatoes from his garden when we stopped for a Pepsi, as I was getting out of the car, she told me she was pregnant, I laughed and got out of the car....Goldie didn't get out, I got back in and said..."You aren't teasing are you?". So the next March, Keli was born! They never let me take Chris for the weekend again! =)
We moved to Johnstown when Tracey was 8 and no matter how long between visits when coming to visit Goldie it seemed like we were always able to pick up our friendship like there hadn't been time between seeing each other.

I would have never made it through the years without having her to listen to me and to give advise. The neat thing is that I now am friends with Keli who is an adult.

Goldie is a true friend as when I am home in Ohio, she lets me choose where to eat so I can get to the places I love to eat in Dayton that aren't in Oklahoma!

Some day I see us sitting on the front porch and going down memory lane and wondering how time went so fast but I will also wonder how I was so lucky to get a friend like this!