For Debbie, my very best friend

"Un Ami(Une amie) peut faire n'importe quoi pour toi." "A friend can do almost anything for you."  Albert Lamorisse, The Red Balloon, 1956) 

Oh, my very own (not true, you are in so many others' hearts) Funny Lady. I still have been unable to write it all down. You have always been a writer although, you have told me not. How else could you have auditioned for the Music Man with your own adapted song, which I am including below and gotten the part of Eulalie  Mackechnne? Shinn?
"Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day. I've never been in a musical. I've only been in a play. I'm thinking we'll get out some barf bags. For earplugs we'll get them to pay. We'll build me a great huge costume. Come on Jack, now what do you say?"
Headstrong and AWESOME. That is you.
You got that part,but you have always had every part in your life as a wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, sister,....,actress and my best friend. And you have always deserved an academy award in each category.
For the 21 years I have known you, you have always called yourself big.
Yes, you are big, in what you have given , not only to your loved ones, but to those who do not have. Every year you have made blankets, socks, for the homeless and delivered them. Every year, you have played Secret Santa to some family and you have included your children in it,so they will carry it on.
As my best friend you have played many roles with me some, that were painful for you. You were the sister I never had. You took my Spanish lace which I thought was the real thing and made them into curtains for me. When I was pregnant with Carissa I craved creamed chipped beef and you made it for me.
There were times when I needed a parent. You were so acidic in your comments that I really not only listened to you, but altered my course. I know when you hung up the phone, every time you would say to yourself, Why did I have to do that?' Then you would answer yourself and say, "Well , I had to do it."
I was sometimes your parent too. Different style, though. Such is the stuff that only great friendships encompass. The greatest part of our friendship for me  has been the phone calls we have made to each other for over twenty years. We always had something to talk about, something to share;sometimes we needed a shoulder to cry on and on... I just wish you had cried more on mine. But such is your gift.You have been the one who has praised my writing and inspired me to keep going.
 I will never forget, last June in Colorado, when at the hospital, while I was at your house you called and I was sobbing as I had just heard that our youngest cat had died on my bed.You rushed home to me and then took me right to your bosom in a way that only a mother, or sister an do.The maternal comfort I felt in that embrace was something I had never experienced and most likely will not ever again.
If I have made you laugh three times, then, that will be three good things. I am only sorry it was not every time we talked, my beautiful redhead.
I will always love you.
Laurie