Heather

Ten years.

Time slips away, you know, but in grief it really doesn't.

My friends John and Mary lost their daughter ten years ago, and it's strange how life makes it even bigger as time moves on. Now I feel for my friends John, Mary, and their daughters Emily and Melissa too.

There were things I didn't know ten years ago...like Heather's beautiful sisters, and how we'd end up being comic foils for one another on social media.

Of course, the Cataldo girls are smart, sarcastic beautiful girls now...Emily has a particularly quick wit and she loves making fun of the 'Cliff' character on Twitter.

Who would've thought?

And the thing that struck me when I saw the photo on one of their pages on Saturday was what I selfishly missed out on as well...

...Heather would've been right there mixing it up too!

Life-long friends are often people we sort of take for granted as always being there. I met John when he was four years old. He always laughs at my memory, but I do recall the night that his Mom and Dad came by to visit my Mom and Dad...we played up at the big house on Shirley Road...running, jumping, throwing shit at each other...

...we did that for the next 44 years.

...we'll probably play a similar slower game for the next 30 or so.

Yet life intervenes, right?

Together at all the big events.

John there as we celebrated a softball championship or two.

Plenty of beers down the gullet.

John and Mary sharing moments at weddings, bars, poker tables, at hospitals and sadly at funerals.

Jokes flying back and forth.

Tears being shared with heartfelt sadness and long, tearful cries.

And then our kids talking, laughing, perhaps remembering the moments when we were the parents and they were running around the house where we were drinking the beer and sharing the love and friendship.

It struck me today.

Ten years down the line.

I lost a friend from the future all those years ago.

And yet, here she is, Heather.

Front and center.

In the hearts of those who loved her.