A friend died this week.  I hadn’t seen her in a long while, which is the case with most of my friends, we all have busy, busy lives. This friend I spent time with as our kids were growing up and I have fond memories of taking massage class together, Tia chi in the park, losing half the baked ziti out of the back of her husband’s pick-up truck on our way to the beach club picnic.  Both of us looking at the asphalt with the same thought, “well maybe, just maybe we could save some of it?” then bursting into fits of giggles and driving away.

She had a huge compassionate heart, she knew life was messy, she just kept going. One of the kindest things she did for me was after the attack in Oklahoma City I had called her and was crying, “Those poor people, those poor babies! We need to do something, what can we do?” I wanted to do a neighborhood gathering of donations, she had bigger aspirations and called me back within an hour.  She had gotten us a table at the town’s Earth Day celebration, radio time, even the mayor showed up, taking credit for her idea. We collected goods and monies and then these were taken to a drop off center.  I remember the organizer in awe saying we had made the single biggest monetary donation yet.  This was just one example of her impact. She was a pebble with many ripples.

Like all of us she had her challenges, but her heart was kind.  She loved fairies.  I found a necklace with a beautiful blue crystal. She was going through a major life crisis.  She called me not soon afterwards distraught saying the crystal had come loose and fell to the floor breaking in half. There was no way to repair it, but the fairy was intact.  I told her the crystal left because she had been healed and she didn’t need it anymore.  She loved the necklace and wore it for the next 22 years.

She gave me friendship, a sacred gift. Now she is flying home with the fairies.