One Year, One Month and Ten Days

One year, one month and ten days! One year, one month and ten days we chanted as we rolled around the roller rink in the house that was actually the addition that hadn’t been finished yet. We were sure it was built just for us. We were nine and ten, roughly.

One year, one month and ten days was the distance in our ages. No matter how old I got, she would always be one year, one month and ten days older than me.

She, was my cousin Glenda, my first best friend.

Today is her birthday, January 4th, she was a Capricorn.

We had been separated when I was 12 when my family moved to Taiwan to pursue missionary work. Had that not occurred, I would have been banned from seeing her as the people that raised me would have thought her a bad influence.

We had a vague plan to meet up somewhere between Washington and New Mexico when I turned 18 and had escaped the oppression of what had been my life up to that point. We never got that far – I got a call shortly after I had moved out, just weeks after turning 18, and felt like my heart had been ripped out.

She was beautiful.

This year will mark 20 years that she has been gone, but never forgotten. I choose to acknowledge her birthday every year, to offer up a thought, as I do not pray.

Rest in peace my beautiful friend, rest in peace.