The Friends and Family Plan

They say that to have friends, you have to be a friend.  Deborah has lots of friends.  Good friends, great people.  Old friends, new friends.  There are parents of kids our kids went to school with.  People Deborah went to school with.  Ex-coworkers.  Ex-neighbors.  Current neighbors.  Book club pals.  Exercise class pals.  Now they're all friends Deborah keeps up with.  It's no effort for her because she loves these people.  From what I can tell, they love her too.

She didn't choose her family (though I suppose I was a choice) as she chose her friends, but I know she loves us too.  She takes after her mother in this.  I don't know anyone who is more selflessly devoted to her kids than Esther, or who makes more of an effort (successful) to stay close to them.  It's a different model than my family followed; we didn't speak for many weeks at a time even when my parents were alive, and now I see my sister who lives a few hours away maybe once or twice a year, and talk to her maybe once every six weeks.  But we have better communication (thanks to Deborah) with Esther, Janet, David, Julia, Audrey, and our new additions Tom, Ros, and Keith, and it's great.

These relationships enrich us all.  I'm kind of along for the ride, and what a ride.  Thanks!