Today would have been my friend Lisa's 49th birthday. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She is with my husband (she used to call him "our" husband) on the Oregon Coast 4 years ago. This was the first and only time she had her skinny feet in the Pacific Ocean. We met 20 years ago when we worked at the same TV news station in New York City. Her first words to me were: "Oh, no you don't!" when she saw I was getting too close to her People magazine. We were total opposites in personality. She was a clean freak, my housekeeping standards are dangerously low. She was a runner, I am a sitter - preferably on a large cushion. She was shy, I am embarrassingly gregarious. I love to travel anywhere, she refused to leave her upper east side neighborhood. And yet, we knew the universe brought us together for a reason. Our long term plan was to grow old together in a cottage in Santa Barbara. Two crazy ladies in a house covered with bougenvillea.
Lisa was the gal who was with me during sonograms when I was pregnant with Emma. She was the gal who marched down to Bloomingdale's to buy me a nursing bra when I couldn't leave the hospital after a c-section. She gave unconditional support and love during the most difficult time of my life. This was the gal who gave the best gifts to my kids and wrote them letters. Not e-mails. Letters. She was loving, loyal, smart, complicated and had more integrity than anyone I have ever known.
In July of 2007, she called from New York to tell me she had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. She had not been feeling well and was losing weight, but had chalked it up to depression. Her prognosis was a year; she was gone 2 months later. I was with her in the hospital for a few days just before she died. It was wrenching and awful and such a gift.
I like to think she would have been with us today, on her birthday, visiting Oregon again on this gorgeous, crisp, sunny Sunday. We would have gone back to the beach or maybe to the pumpkin patch. She would have been in the back of the van, laughing with the kids, and loving them with her whole heart.
Happy Birthday, Hon!
3 comments:
Sad post dear...would have loved to have met Lisa. Sending you a hug.
xo
ethel
Pam, How blessed you were to have someone like that in your life. That kind of love in a friendship is rare. Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.
Debbie
"Wrenching, awful and a gift" sounds like a lot of love there. Thanks for sharing your friend and the story of the two of you. There is nothing like true, true friendship. xo -amy
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