"My Glory Was That I Had Such a Friend"
Too many decades have rolled along since English Lit days to recall the story behind Yeats' words. No matter. To write such a phrase, Yeats' friend must have been really something. A true friend--one who sees beneath the surface and isn't repelled. one who doesn't scurry when the path turns brambly and dark...who knows your stories, your shiny moments, your crummy choices, celebrates your fleeting brilliances, and challenges you to reach higher, be better, think straighter. The kind of friend who discounts her own pain out of concern for yours. Rare. Exceptional. But a friend like that isn't confined to the pages of the classic pen. My 88-year-old mother has "such a friend." The two have been best friends since toddlerhood. They, and their bunch of friends known as "The Girls" shared a lifetime of memories, adventures, griefs, laughs...oh, how they could laugh. A few years ago, determined to capture their story, i did my best fly-on-the-wall imit
