A Good Friend.

Today it is my dear friend Ko's birthday.  I have known her since the year we moved to our present home 8 1/2 years ago (where we knew no-one).  For her young years (I can say that because she is younger than me!), she seems to have had to cope with far more downs than ups.  When I first met her it was in the creche of the church we both belonged to about 6 months after we had moved there.  She was dropping off her two children, 3 yrs and a 3 month old.  She explained to me that her eldest a little boy had come with his 'daddy' book this morning as he was missing his father - he had died about a month or so previously.  She had been widowed just before her 30th birthday with two small children.  Our contact over the next 6 months was occasional.  We had some play dates with the children (our boys are the same school year).  Another vivid memory I have was about 6 months later when she told me she had met some-one through an Internet support forum for those who had lost their partners. It was probably the first time I saw the heavy weight that she had been bearing being lifted.  There was a sparkle in her eyes, that was probably when I first really started to get to know her and she was fab!

I read an (as yet) unpublished book that another friend has written last week.  In it she describes a sunset,  I hope she won't mind me sharing the analogy she uses (I won't write it beautifully like she does, you will have to buy the book for that).  It has to do with the fact that a sunset is only beautiful and coloured because of the dust in the air.  It is these imperfections that cause the light from the sun to reflect in different ways, without it there would be nothing except plain sun light.  I can look at my friend Ko and see this.  She is beautiful not just from the outside but from the inside.  These last couple of years since the death of my sister, she has been the one person my age (I do like to consider I am younger than I am) who I know has a bit of an understanding of how I have been feeling.  This has natural drawn us closer,  She married her second husband on my birthday 5 years ago and their second baby together (yes they have four in all) is mine and my husbands youngest God child.

Today we were supposed to go and have a nice birthday lunch together, however her hubby has just popped round to say that she has woken up and been ill so gone back to bed.  Something always goes wrong on her birthday - last year it was snow that prevented them from going to the a pre-booked show in London!  However I know that we will make up for it soon and just pray her a very speedy recovery and I want her to know just how much I love and adore her.  Happy Birthday Ko x.