It's Still Last Night...

When we were barely teenagers, my friend Karne and I would write each other sweetly poignant notes that always began with: “It's still last night..."

We would pour out our girlish hearts on 3-holed ruled paper, celebrating requited puppy love with our pimply-faced boyfriends and/or agonizing over unrequited crushes unaware.  They were  lengthy epistles full of the inherent angst common to teenage girls everywhere.

The connection between us was destined and deep.

We lived the privileged lives of nurturing homes, the rarefied sanctity of supportive and intact families.

Though our hearts were joined, our paths were varied. She was a reporter for The Bulldog Growl and a budding Thespian. I was a big-mouthed cheerleader who sang quietly off-key in the choir.

We graduated and went our separate ways. I plighted my troth with the Dickman and she headed off to college with a backpack full of dreams. Although communication dribbled to sporadic at best, our conversations always began exactly where they had ended.  Never missing a beat.  A quirky gift of language common to friends of the heart.

Karne came back home to get married, and I was her bridesmaid, as she had been mine. 

She celebrated the birth of my two sons,  while having trouble conceiving, herself.  God finally blessed her with a son who grew beneath her heart and one who grew inside of it.

Her precious mother died too young. My father too, then hers. We carried each other through the losses. She has commiserated with the dramas of my life and I have helped her laugh through hers.

This weekend, the Dickman and I were honored to join her in celebrating the wedding of her oldest son. It was a stunning event, set in the beautiful north Texas countryside.

We wore our matching boots...

She wore The Horsehead...

And I cheered as she danced with her newly wedded son.

When I returned to the hotel, my heart was too full for sleep. So, I did what came naturally. I sat down and wrote my Karne a letter...

Dear Karne,

It's still last night...

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am for you, for where you are in your life Right Now. You've never seemed happier, never smiled brighter, never been more beautiful than you were tonight.

I know your Mom and Dad were at the wedding. I felt their presence all around us and I know you did, as well.  An unspoken understanding, none the less expressed.

You and I, we've done a lot of living since the halcyon days of our youth. If those two silly girls knew what lay ahead... well, their skinny knees would've been knockin'.

If we knew then what we know now, we would have never left the safety of our Mama's kitchen tables nor abandoned the healing powers of Green Chicken Noodle Soup.

Remember when we thought we had all the answers? Thank God we were too naïve to realize just how difficult the questions would become; too innocent to imagine that growing up could be so painful and unpredictable, so beautiful and shattering. No one could have convinced us of all the ways life would try to break us, then somehow assured us the love around us and between us would unfailingly put us back together, again. And again.  Every.Single.Time.

I can't imagine my world without you in it.

The Gift of It All hit me last night as I looked through the lens, ready to capture you and your Timmy in all your post-wedding dancing bliss. With my finger poised to snap the shutter of my little pink camera, you turned and smiled right at me...

And my eyes filled with tears at the glorious happiness on your beautiful face, the love sparkling from your eyes.

Friend of my soul, dancing with the love of her life. Celebrating the hope of the future, while surrounded by sweet spirits of the past. 

Keep those red boots dancin', my friend.  

Love You Infinitely,

Wob