So, consider this fiction book. Would you buy it?
Two girls growing up in the 1950's Bronx meet each other in 5th grade. Girl #1 has lived in the neighborhood all her life. Girl #2 has recently arrived from the South Bronx. For whatever reason, they become friends.
They go to the same junior high and the same high school. Then, they go their separate ways. One wants to be a vet and has always loved science. She goes to City College of New York. Back in school, her parents had gotten her a French tutor, a young man with a talent for languages. At the end of her sophomore year, she marries her former tutor. They move to Brooklyn.
Meantime, the other girl goes to college in the Bronx, starts out as a history major and later switches to anthropology. At the end of college she marries her college sweetheart. They wander here and there, and eventually settle in upstate New York.
Kind of boring, right? Well, let's make it interesting.
Age 29, two small children, Girl #1 never becomes a vet. And then her world changes for good. She is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She beats it after nearly a year of harrowing treatment. She becomes an elementary school teacher and teaches generations of childen. She retires. She has grandchildren. She becomes a caregiver for her elderly mother.
Girl #2, well, that girl, in real life, is me. And you've read the story of my last three years in this blog.
What did real life do to Girl #1? It played her a nasty, nasty trick. She's fighting cancer again today, on her 60th birthday. But whatever you do, don't pity her. She is taking things day by day and planning for the future. I've visited her twice this year, and I hope to do so again. (I might even post more Brooklyn pictures one of these days.) And, thank you for asking, she is still married to French Tutor.
Some things, you just can't make up. A friendship that spans nearly 50 years is a priceless gift, one that I don't intend to give up any time soon. This is no fiction novel. I am a non fiction writer, and this is a story I want to add chapters to for many years.
Amen.
Do you have a best friend from childhood?
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
2 comments:
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Nice tribute to your childhood, and your friend. It makes me think of my childhood friends, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing this!
She is in my prayers! She is already blessed with such a lovely friend! Good for her, a warrior for her own life! I hope she gives cancer the Rope-A-Dope! Send her a hug!
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