We have two friends who are always ready to help,

Whenever they are needed.

Knowledgeable and direction oriented,

Their advice is always heeded.

They work tirelessly and endlessly,

Until the work is done.

And my trying to keep up with their amazing pace,

Is a battle I have not won.

It was going to be two years since Pete died, her husband of nearly forty years. Thirty-nine years, seven months, and twenty-two days, Alice kept reminding herself when she felt downright depressed from the loss and the loneliness, which was often. Too often, her friends would tell her when she’d call to sob out her misery over the phone.

Florida in September was warm and balmy, I discovered as we, my sister-in-law Alice and I, disembarked from the plane outside the terminal at Orlando. We were to meet our husbands, Marty and Carl, who had headed out on a 'manly' trip on their motorcycles two weeks prior from Colorado. We flew to meet and ride with them down to the point of the peninsula and camp along the way.

It was always ‘Gwynny and Nina’, short for Gwyndolin and Janina, since first grade. We’d become best friends and have stayed best friends throughout college and into our married lives. Although how long Gwynny will stay married will remain to be seen. It’s a troubled one, and due largely to Gwynny having turned into a real bitch.

Good friends are the ones who’ll light up a cig-ar

While the guys are out playin’ golf

You giggle and you whine over a tall glass of wine

And pretend it’s not just girl talk

The world’s problems are no problems when girls get together

And solve each and every one

Hell yes we could run a country after raisin’ a family

Don’t even think that we could not