happy birthday bessie.

i met bessie when my life was falling apart at the seams.  i had just had major surgery and my personal life was more difficult than it has ever been.  i was wounded, i was sick and  so so sad.  i needed a friend.  i needed a bessie.

she was five years younger than me and had just started college, i had finished.  we worked together and she needed a roommate as did i.  i remember saying to friends, "i think she will be a great roommate, because she has her own set of friends and mine and we will leave each other alone."  but we moved in that day ten or so years ago and both of us instantly became richer because the gift we would grow to become to each other.

i often think i hope that everyone at one time or another in their life has a bessie.  because i can not imagine my life without her.  she has been there in the really impossible times and has rejoiced with me in the happy times.  she cried tears of joy for me when i told her brad had asked me to marry him and stood beside me when i married him as my dreams came true.

when i have been sad, she has shown up.  

even when there was nothing needing to be said, she has been my constant throughout the years.

today is her birthday and we just got finished celebrating bessie style.  her request that i make for dinner - pork chops, baked potatoes, mac and cheese, green beans, sister shuberts (did i mention she is smart?) with pink lemonade cake (i'll post the recipe this week, it was yummy!) for dessert.

i wanted her to have a special day.  a wonderful birthday.  a happy day.  a day where she felt loved, needed, wanted and all the things that i would desire my friends to feel every day, but i wanted her to feel an extra dose of all things lovely today.

so with a little construction paper and twine i rigged up this banner.  use what you have, right?  nothing says happy birthday like a homemade banner.
everyone needs to be made a big deal of every now and again and today it was bessie's turn.

and if i can give to her half of what she has given to me in the years i have known her, i will have learned much about friendship and what it really means to love someone.

happy birthday bessie.  i love you with all my heart and hope you feel special today.

p.s.  brad cleaned every dish from dinner AND dessert.  man, i have good people in my life.