My Friend

My late friend Jani, has been on my mind consistently for a while now. Memories of her just pop in my head. Some little something will remind me of her smile, her laugh, her prayers. I drove by some road kill the other day...a skunk...that made me laugh remembering that Jani loved the scent of skunk. She wanted to bottle the fragrance. What???! I have a pic of her in my chemical service book. There she is with that pretty smile of hers with the twinkle in her eye. She's holding one of her favorite hand puppets. She wanted me to keep this picture in her file so I could see the way she wanted her hair cut.

Every day, as I go to work, I must pass a couple of trees on Veterans Boulevard, that were "our trees". Jani and I used to talk about those trees and the symbolism they were to us. The tall one with few limbs was Dennis & me. We hadn't really affected or reached as many people as she and Leroy...thus the few limbs. (My thoughts...not hers). The shorter one with all the branches was Jani and Leroy, who had been foster parents for many years and had affected many lives. I shall never forget the look that came out of her eyes one day as we drove past them together. Beneath the tree that we had dubbed hers was what appeared to be a root cellar. Funny...neither of us had really noticed it before. It was covered in vines and all sorts of connecting bondage's as if it were sealed where no one could enter without first doing major destruction. I said, "I wonder what is in that cellar." Her eyes met mine with a look that haunts me to this day. "I don't know," she replied.

Well, you would have to know the way my mind, along with my friend's mind, worked, to understand the sense of foreboding we both felt. That was the first and the last time we discussed it. I can't remember just how long it was after the drive, that we had a terrible ice storm that destroyed many of our city's trees. Her tree was one of them.

There was only one other time I remember seeing that same look in her eye, and it was during the time God was preparing to bring her home. Her final lap in the race she had run. What a race it was! A unique individual, that one! We laughed, we cried, we shared many thoughts, memories and just plain ole good times. But that look...it was a knowing look without admission. She was spending a few days in a local nursing home and I felt her time was near. We had gone to visit her and like most days, there were a number of people surrounding her. She was loved. As we prepared to leave I wanted to pray with her, so I slipped between her bed and the wall. She couldn't speak at this point in her journey...the surgeries had damaged the area that controlled speech. I gently took her hand in mine and prayed for God's grace and mercy and reminded Him how much we needed her. Her eyes met mine...there was that look again. "I'll never forget you," I whispered in her ear, as tears streamed down my face. Within the week my friend went home to be with her Creator, her Saviour, her friend, her Redeemer.

The root cellar? It had it's own symbolism. Turns out it's name was brain cancer, deeply rooted, without acceptance. But, you can't wipe out a life as beautiful as hers. If you ever drive down Veteran's Blvd., notice the green vine growing up the dead tree. My friend lives on in the heart's of those she left behind, producing extended life on planet Earth. If I can touch half the number of people Jani did; if I can make a difference, as she did...my life here will not have been in vain. God was evident in her life. I pray that God will show himself to others through the life I live here as He did through my friend. I will never forget...