Day 13 - Missing My Friend

This time of year, my posts can get kind of heavy.  So warning!! Today marks the 9th anniversay of the death of one of the most beautiful, kindest, soft spoken, graceful, loving, sweetest people I have ever met.  She was the kind of person that didn't speak her mind all the time...but when she did, watch out!  Because what she was about to say was the truth and you better listen up.

Andrea Rae Brown

Andrea was my friend.  It is funny, we only met through our husbands.  They had been best friends for years.  She actually knew Mark before I did.  So when Mark and I started dating and then got married, we started hanging out with Andrea and her husband David.  At the time we were married they had a sweet baby girl who was 2.  I remember when we went out to eat a few years later and they told us she was pregnant.  They had another little girl.  We were together all the time.  Seems like every weekend we were doing stuff together.   We all had so much fun, those were some of the best years of my life!

I still remember the day she told me that the cancer was back.  We were of course spending the evening together again, and the boys sent us out to pick up hamburgers from Braums.  We were in the car and I was totally griping about my sucky day!  Going on and on.  Then she said....yeah...my day sucked too.  The tumor on my brain is back.  I am going to have to do radiation and chemo.  We sat there in silence for a few minutes and then I said....well...guess you win!  Your day sucks a lot worse than mine!  We both started laughing and then we were crying!  I had to pull over, and we sat on the side of the road and hugged each other!

That began some of the worst months!  She was SO strong!  She was working and trying to carry on.  I was trying to help where I could, but she was proud and didn't want to much help.  We tried to keep things as normal as possible.  She fought a good fight.  The day she died, my heart broke right in half and still has a crack to this day.  I love her so much. 

So I will try to end the post on a positive note!  I wish so much she could see my little Dylan!  She would have loved him and he would have loved her too.  I did take a picture today.  I thought you should see his "best toy".  He says to me, Buzz is my best toy!  Here you see him drawing on his doodle desk and his buddy buzz is sitting with him!  What a little mess!