never put off til tomorrow what you could do today

my friend Gloria died last night. we had been friends for 38 years. when i was having babies she was travelling the world. when i was able to travel the world she was having babies. we had talked about going to russia together, she said it was about the only place left in the world she had not visited, but it never happened.

we have been with each other through so many hardships, 38 years of friendship, loving and caring for each other, supporting each other through divorces and deaths. we cried together but mostly we laughed together. she and another friend and i were each 1 year apart. we were like the 3 musketeers. periods of time could go by without contact but we would pick up again like we hadn't missed a day.

for as much as i am at peace because she is with Jesus today i am going to miss her. when she showed me her baptism certificate i was so excited. she had lived in israel for a short while and had been baptised in the jordan river. she loved israel. i thought wow! to be baptised in the same river as Jesus.

years ago she had asked me to be her executrix, i said yes and although i took care of all the details when my father-in-law passed away many years ago, this will be a lot harder.

she had ms, recently got a couple of infections and was getting worse and then got pneumonia. she had gone to the hospital monday and when they wanted to put her on life support last night she refused and succumbed to the pneumonia.

i had talked to her on saturday and she had told me she was going to hospital sunday or monday, i told her i would come over sunday either at home or hospital. sunday i talked to her and she was at home but too tired for company. we talked & i told her i would come and see her today and we would see about getting her affairs in order. she agreed. she probably knew she was near the end.

i told her i couldn't come until today because i worked monday - wednesday and had classes monday to wednesday nights. my tuesday class finished last week and i had thought about going to bible study but i put that off too. when i talked to a co-worker about needing new glasses and she suggested costco i went to costco looking for new glasses and ending up walking up and down every row looking for whatever. i left costco at 8:30 and thought about gloria and realized it was too late to visit her on my way home. i expected to see her today.

you never get a second chance to say goodbye. i'm so glad that the last thing i said to her was 'i love you my friend' and she said 'i know, i love you too'

until we're together again my friend - i love you.