I need to say Happy Birthday to my friend Tracy.
She and I met in 7th grade in health class. We were taking a test and she whispered to me "hey can you move your arm I can't see your paper". I was like "what?!" Then she smiled and we got in trouble for laughing during the test. We were attached at the hip from that point on.
I spent so much time at her house that her dad thought he had a new daughter. We went so much together at a very young age. We smoke, drank, cut school, and were just plain old hooligans with a fist fight or two tossed in the mix. With arrogance that comes with youth we thought we were invincible. The situations we found ourselves in make me cringe now as a parent, but back then we thrived on the adrenalin that flowed through our veins with each experience.
We defended each other even when we knew we wrong. We could call each other bitch, or whore, but if anyone else did, well, be prepared for a beat down. We held each other up after the suicide of a good friend of ours. We cried for each other when our hearts were broken by some douch-canoe of a stupid boy. We were sisters.
She was very sexually active early on. I was not. She was the one who always told me to wait. Her story is not mine to tell, but suffice to say she ended up pregnant at the age of 15. I was there through it all even during the conversations her father had with her about putting the baby up for adoption. Her mother left the scene when Tracy was only 2yrs old. Heavy stuff for a young girl right?
Those early teen years with Tracy and her dad and brother helped shape me in ways that I'm forever grateful for. I learned so much about friendship, and sisterhood.
As high school went on we started to lose touch since Tracy was staying home taking care of her baby and eventually got pregnant again at 17. Our lives went separate ways for years until we met up again in the grocery store one day. By that time I was pregnant with my second daughter and Tracy had just had her fourth.
We kept in touch, went to birhday parties for each others kids and just chatted a lot.
Tracy was diagnosed with Lupus some years back and things started to fall apart for her. Her health steadily declined.
She would have been 44 today. She passed away almost two years ago leaving behind one son, three daughters and several grandbabies with another due any day now.
Happy Heavenly birthday Tracy. You were my best friend, and sister during a very special time in my life. I will always love you.
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