"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." ~ Walter Winchell
This is Toni. I adore this girl....have a crush on her really. We have been friends for well over a decade. Met in church. Don't remember when or how. I just know that I've loved her since the day we met.
We are total opposites. She's trendy. Outgoing. Sassy. Commands the spotlight. And doesn't always hold her tongue. She's everything I'm not. And she's so okay with that.
Our lives have always followed parallel paths in one way or another. Sadly, we both lost our fathers this year. Hers in October. Mine a month ago. So when she sends a text to check on me, I know she's doing it from the depths of her heart. She knows the pain. She understands that a friend who's suffered this kind of loss needs to be checked on. There's great comfort in that. She sent an Edible Arrangements fruit delivery to my job when I returned after my father's death. It came right on time with the perfect note.
She gets me. And I will forever love her for that. We celebrate and high five each other when the other gets a new car or even a new purse. For every way that we are different, we are so much alike. We both dig ritzy hotels, fine stationery and cute shoes. God knew just what He was doing when our paths crossed.
Lately, I've been overwhelmed by the kindness of my friends. The love they have so genuinely poured out at this dark time in my life. Thinking of a friend who took the boys for the whole day after we found out my father died. I needed that more than I needed breath that day.
