Friday, December 21, 2012

For Andrew...

You were born 6 weeks before me and were the boy next door.  We crawled together, sucked on the same toys, discovered how to walk together, played together whenever we could, learned to swim together, had our first year at school sitting next to each other.  Our families all crammed into your mum's station wagon many times to go to the beach or on a picnic or to a park and that funny time when we all went to see the Pope and we were supposed to be quiet and listen to the mass but we just ran around all silly at the big oval.  We often got in trouble together, we giggled and thought we were oh so clever.

I remember....and I thank you for those first 6 years of memories before our family moved away.  Although we still saw each other, it grew less frequent with the years.  Our mothers remained close friends and I stayed in touch with you via them.  We lived on opposite sides of the planet and then opposite sides of this country.  Those childhood bonds were faint, but unbroken.  You were my first best friend.

So now you are free...no more pain.  Thank you for the special role you had in my life.  I'll never forget you.

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