SIDE THOUGHT - My Friend Nadine

Dear readers, I must take a moment out and write about my friend.

It has been exactly 4 years since Nadine passed away. She was my best friend and my greatest fan.

After years of just working for a paycheck, she had decided to become a nurse. After much searching, she was so excited that she found what she should be doing for work. She had applied to nursing schools when she passed away.

She used to always pat her hair down as if to calm it down. After years of dying her hair brown or black to cover up the gray, she had dyed her hair bright red.

She adored my son. Once, she was holding him on her lap when she had the funniest look on her face and said quietly, "I think he peed." My hubby and I just nodded and smiled. She kept staring at us. We stared back thinking how she knew that he had peed and why she had that funny look on her face. Then I remembered that we had not put a diaper on him after the last diaper change because we had read somewhere that sometimes it is good to "air out the bum-bum and leave the diaper off for awhile." Her entire jeans got soaked.

She could just sit still for hours doing nothing.

She was the same height as my husband. Everywhere, we went, we would run into someone she knew. She searched everywhere for roller-skates because she could not stand roller blades. She loved cream of tomato soup. And caesar salads. She sent me the cutest cards filled with the latest information about her life and her comments about mine.

I did not get to show her our second son. I did not get to invite her in to our new house. I did not get to share photos of my older son starting his day of kindergarten. She was third on my list of people to contact when something good or bad happened. Now, after I call the first two, I don't know who to call.

Even after four years, I still feel like a footstool with a leg missing.