For Brenda & Michael.

She realized that she was definitely the worst person to ever attempt to complete a crossword puzzle. But that wasn’t her huge epiphany of the day. For she had always known she was terrible at crossword puzzles, and therefore hardly attempted them. The huge epiphany had something to do with friendship and friends’ ability to get you through anything.
She had just spent a long night/day (about fourteen hours beginning at around 5AM but who was really keeping track?) in the emergency room with a thin blue curtain as the only divider between another patient and the friend she was with. The other patient’s case was much more severe and the news his family received was quite awful to say the least. The entire neurology and cardiology department made their rounds to deliver their assessments to his family; it was that bad. Michael (she inevitably came to know the names of her temporary neighbors after hours of eavesdropping) had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years ago. Earlier that day, after attending his monthly check-up at his oncologist’s office, Michael had suffered a massive stroke. The worst news was that neither the neurologists, cardiologists, or oncologists believed he’d make it for any significant period of time, nor did he have a chance of even waking up from his present state. His brother and his wife, Brenda, were with him through the night and first thing in the morning, a friend of Michael and Brenda’s came to the hospital. She took care of everything she could. Including, but absolutely not limited to, arranging rides for out-of-state and out-of-country family from the airport, all the meals for the day, and calling her personal travel agent to confirm arrangements for the family. She did everything she possibly could to make sure Brenda and Michael’s brother could focus on Michael.
That’s exactly what friends do. If nothing else they’ll just be there for you. And a lot of the time, that is so much more than we could ever hope for.

When Brenda and Michael’s friend tried to lighten the mood saying, “Well at the very least you know you two had a good run.” Brenda replied without any hesitation, “No, we had a great run.” ‘Now that,’ she thought to herself, ‘is love.’