my best girl friend

You know that one person, that one girl friend who can always make everything better? That one friend who has never left your side, who has always fought for you and been there through everything?

I've wanted to write about my best friend for a while and I thought this would be the perfect time as she is asleep in my living room (*having come down to help me with the new house).

I can recall the countless times that my best B (*our nicknames for each other) has come to my rescue. There was the time when I was 18 and was moving down East for art school. She took the train with me all that way from Ottawa to Halifax so that I wouldn't be alone and helped me find my first apartment. There were the numerous Valentine's Days when I was single (*even if she was not) that she would make sure to do something special with me. And the time that she put together and submitted my portfolio as I was applying to art school #2 . There were the long nights at our apartment in Montreal where we stayed up together and she would help me with my essays and the yummy dinners that we managed to have even when on a shoe string budget. And maybe the most memorable, my wedding day when she came to my rescue once again helping me with a million tasks and then delivering a beautiful speech that made me cry.

We also share memories that take us back to being babies. We met at church when I was not even 1 and spent almost every holiday together growing up. Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Canada Day, most of my holiday memories include her. Like the time we dragged our Christmas tree home from the Atwater Market and decorated our tiny Montreal apartment for Christmas. We also spent many of our summers and falls as children at Gracefield Presbyterian Camp. The second our cars would roll up the cedar covered roads, we children would jump out and disappear...never to be seen again, accept strangely at meal time. There we were children (*the way children should be), playing with frogs and tadpoles, going for walks, exploring nature and taking canoe rides around the lake.

Yesterday my best B came all the way to Hamilton to help me out. She insisted as she always does that she was not about to let me (* 8 months pregnant) do this on my own. She came prepared to help me clean the new house and offered to help me by painting the baby's room. And finally an act of true love, last night B even removed the old nail polish off my toes and applied a fresh new coat, because I couldn't reach. If that's not friendship then I don't know what is.

B is that one true friend who has stayed by my side through thick and thin. She knows my past and who I am today. There are no uncomfortable silences or stretches to make the conversation go further. B is that one true friend who is fiercely loyal. She stands up for what she believes in and never backs down. She knows me better than I know myself. From being childhood best friends, to crazy teenagers, to young adults living on our own in Montreal and now as we are both teachers and looking forward to our adult lives, I honestly can say that I am truly very lucky and blessed to have her in my life and to have her as my best friend.