Friends

I am lucky to have had some really good friends during the course of my life, but three stand out as the best--Nina Hall, Pat Mason and Joyce DePaulo.

Nina and I go way back...back to the AmeriTrust days. We each had little girls that were almost the same age and we were both single. Although we saw each other at work, we didn't really meet until I bumped into her at Halle's during my lunch hour. I was looking at a red scarf and this voice behind me said..."buy it, red is your color." We've been friends ever since. We used to call our little girls, "Ebony and Ivory." Nina's daughter, Ebony was a beautiful chocolate brown color and Jenna was the whitest white Nina had ever seen. Once when Nina was going on an overnight date, I was going to watch Eb for her for the weekend. "Don't touch her hair," Nina said to me...that made me laugh, but there were two other funny things that happened that weekend. When Nina and her date drove up into my driveway to drop off Eb, her date looked at me and then at Nina and said, "you can't leave Ebony here, she's white." But the best part of the visit was when our little Ebony and Ivory's were arguing in the bathroom as I was taking a shower. "What are you girls fighting about," I asked. One of them pulled the shower curtain back suddenly and Jenna said, in a very proud voice, "see, I told you she was white all over." Ebony just stood and stared at me...amazed. Nina moved to Chicago years ago, but if she called today, we would pick up right where we left off.

Pat Mason and I worked at Ohio Savings. I have often told people that when I first saw Pat, I didn't know who she was, but I knew she was somebody. How true those words are. Pat has had a wonderful career and I am lucky enough to work with her now at New York Life. When National City was purchased, Pat was displaced. I got her resume in a heart beat and by the time she was packing her desk at Nat City, she was already a NYL employee. Pat is my mentor and my friend. She prays over me at lunch and laughs when I am wicked. She is a wonderful person and I am lucky to have her in my life.

I had dinner with Joyce this evening. Joyce and I met at a golf course. We were both taking golf lessons and the class was told to pair up for part of the lesson. I remember looking at Joyce and thinking, "she looks like a nice lady," so I went up to her and asked if she wanted to be my partner. We've been friends ever since. I wish we golfed more. When we first started actually playing we went out when it was supposed to rain. Oh it rained alright. We were on the third or fourth hole and it was just pouring. We didn't care. The men ran for the club house so we had the whole course to ourselves. We could do, "do overs" if we had a bad shot and putt on the green ten or twelve times without worrying about the people behind us waiting to play. There was just one little thing we didn't think about....not only was it raining, there was thunder and lightening...and there we were swinging our clubs high above our heads. Pretty soon, we saw a man on a golf cart coming towards us. He told us he was looking for us and we had to go in. It was dangerous being on the course in the rain and lightening. He took us back to the clubhouse and all of those men who ran in when it started to get bad applauded us for being the last ones in. They bought us a beer, and we were never intimidated by them again.

Many people have come and gone through my life. I haven't given most of them up willingly, but yet they are gone. I am a better person for knowing all of them, but I am far, far better for having known my 3 friends.