Happy Birthday Shoutout #1 - Kim

I always forget to send out birthday cards despite remembering everyone's birthday on time. I don't know why I find it so hard, but I do. I buy the cards, address them, and then forget to put them in the mailbox. For several years it was one of my new year's resolutions, but this year I decided to go about it a different way. This year I resolve to celebrate people's birthdays on my blog. Here is the first birthday of the year!

My friend Kim

I met Kim when she moved in next door to our house in Pennsylvania. She claims that she remembers the day her mother introduced me to her and her sister. I rejected them. I was four years old. I have no memory of that first meeting, but despite my first reaction, we became friends. We still are. She and her sister are my oldest friends. 

We went to school together and graduated kindergarten together. She is a year older than me. Her sister is two years younger than me, and my brother is two years younger than her. It made for a nice little group and we all played well together.

We danced together as elves and as rats. My mother taught her how to swim. We spent a lot of time swimming in my backyard pool. She grew up to be a great swimmer and swam all through high school.

We moved when I was six, but because our parents were good friends we all stayed in touch. They came and visited us in North Carolina and later in Indiana when we moved again. We visited them in Pennsylvania. We kept in touch by writing letters. We both loved to read and we discussed the books we were reading in our letters. 

We took vacations together. We spent summers together. We shared Christmases together. We have tons of memories of our good times. We have tons of stories. We've shared many laughs.

    

Letters turned into phone conversations. During college Kim discovered she had a brain tumor and we traveled to Pennsylvania for the surgery. The tumor was benign and she came through with flying colors, losing her hearing in one ear which came in handy later on after we moved in together. We continued to visit one another both of us traveling to each other's state by bus.

Kim moved to Indiana in the latter part of the 80's and lived with us. She had no fear about uprooting her life and starting over. She talked me into traveling with her. We spent over a month traveling out east through New England staying in youth hostels. Kim did all of the driving and taught me how to read a map. She was fearless in her love of travel and was always open for new adventures. I never would have done that trip without her. She took me out of my comfort zone and gave me some confidence. 

 In 1989 we both moved to Florida and lived with her grandparents, eventually moving into our own apartment. We got jobs. We fell in love and got married. We bought houses. I had a baby, and I can remember Kim and I bundling Madison in her stroller and walking the trail.

Kim and her husband moved away in the late 90's. She became a registered nurse. She's had her tumor return a couple of times. She's dealt with everything thrown her way calmly and with an assurance I never had. I visited her once while traveling in the summer with my mother and daughters, but we haven't been together in years. This is probably the longest we have gone without seeing each other since that first meeting in 1968, but we have still kept in touch. We text now. We talk on the phone. We play Words with Friends. She reads my blog. We send each other birthday cards...well, she is good about that.  We talk about visiting each other, but life always seems to get in the way.

I tell everyone that if it weren't for Kim I wouldn't have left Indiana. I would have lived forever with my parents. I credit her with the life I have now; my husband and my children. She was a strong force in my life in the most gentlest way. She guided me without me really being aware. She suggested things and then made them happen. She pushed me without me feeling the shove in my back. She wasn't loud and she was content to stay in the background and let me be the center of attention and the loud one. She loved me unconditionally. She is one of my greatest friends, and I love her dearly.

Happy Birthday Kim. May your day be a special one. May you have cake (because I love cake).

Thanks for being my friend forever and ever.

Agoy goy!