Friends forever

Wow, I have tried to start this narrative a few times for these pictures.  Words cannot explain how much I love and appreciate these two ladies.  This is just 3 out of the 6 of us who were joined at the hip most of our childhood and Irish too, but she moved away from us.  And what a childhood it was!!!  I really wish on many occasions that my kids could have friends like I had growing up.  We were often referred to as those “4^th ward girls”, until high school when the unimaginable happened, our ward was split.  Separating us right down the middle, 3 of us in one ward and 3 of us in the other ward.  Who knew something could be so life changing, but we trudged on and made it through. 

It started out with 4 of us in the ward, Holly Orr, Kathryn Christiansen, Irish Rinehart and myself.  We also went to kindergarten together in Holly’s basement with her mom, Mrs. Orr as our teacher.  In second grade Holli Housely and Carole Bunnell joined our little  ward friendship.  In fourth grade, I think, Irish moved away to Burley, making for some very sad girls.  I have tried really hard to keep up with her (and everyone else) through the years though and she did come back to South Fremont for a year of high school too.  Anyway, in fourth grade through sixth grade, we had our moms call the principal (who was also in our ward) each year and request that we all be in the same class, those poor teachers .  This is where I would like to say, I wish I would have written in a journal when I was younger.  I remember some things, but this old age is really kicking in and I can’t remember much.  The summer before our Freshman year in High School, Janice Christensen moved into our ward so that evened us back out to 6.  I digress, I will come back to current day and these pictures and save the rest of the stories for my life history or something.

Anyway, Kathryn’s dad passed away shortly after Christmas, which was heartbreaking.  He had a stroke a few years ago and then had another one that took his life.  Kathryn did an amazing job at his funeral and I was so proud of her.  We really haven’t spent much time together, but we have all stayed in touch one way or another.  Kathryn came the week after the funeral to stay with her mom for a week.  One of those nights she set aside to spend time with Janice and I, since we are the only ones that still live here, and we just talked and laughed for hours.  It reminded me how thankful I am for my life and the amazing friends that kept me on the straight and narrow.  They were amazing and still are, I know I could call any one of them and they would do anything in their power to help me.  We really do miss our Holli, who passed away about 10 years ago, she was definitely the one that kept us laughing and doing many fun things.  We do have the amazing memories though, which is more than I can say for some, I don’t know why we were so blessed to be part of such an amazing friendship, but I wouldn’t trade it work anything in the world.  Thanks guys!!