I have been thinking about my college friends a lot lately.  Most of us have known each other since 1981.  Email has kept us current — sometimes to the minute — in each other’s lives.  We have all had to lean hard on one another and, in turn, be the supporting ones.  We laugh, we cry, we built a website (www.ifsarahcanbevp.com) and had t-shirts made celebrating our friendships.

For many years, I was dealing with internal demons, coming out of the closet and building a career.  I missed fun times, hard times, some weddings, bridal showers and a few births.  About 12 years ago, my mom got sick again.  I went through a transformation of sorts and recalibrated what mattered to me.  I reached out to my college friends, started to be more present in their lives (cyberly) and they embraced me as if the past was past and only the now mattered.  These are special women with special gifts of friendship.  When my mother died, I looked around the chapel and some had schlepped to come.  The next weekend, all were converging on NY as a planned reunion.  They all came over that next Saturday and sat in my home, just being there.  My mother was dead and my friends by their presence strengthened me.  I don’t know that I talked much, but they did and the chatter was comforting and their presence a gift.

These are friends of a lifetime.  Individually, they are fabulous and together they are a force of nature.  I love you all.