As one climbs the family tree, there are no branches or leaves for one’s lifelong friends. There are no recordings of their names. Friendships that blossomed through years of laughter and tears are not given that place of honor. How strange and unbelievable!

Who are our lifetime friends? They are buddies, pals with whom we spent our early childhoods , went to school together, shared rites of passage. In their company, one does not have to explain how they grew up, who one’s family is, when the milestones of life took place. They were witnesses to all that was.

In honor and memory of my lifelong friend, I would like to introduce Cathy Irene Covert. We met in 1960. She lived in our neighborhood just a few short blocks over. I could walk to her house in five minutes. I met her through her cousin. My first impression was that she was bossy. As the three of us listened to records, little did I imagine that our friendship would last forever.

We became inseparable. We were the younger versions of Thelma and Louise sans the Thunderbird. We were the original Laverne and Shirley. We dated two best friends. When one of us was present, the other was not far away. Laughter and teenage angst followed us. After high school, she married and I went on to college. I moved an hour away. We wrote back and forth.

Through the years, we visited back and forth. When my husband and I visited with her, she would invite her children and their children to share dinners together. We were family.

On the morning of November 22, 2016, I was at my computer reading emails. The lights flickered, but the electric never went off. Later that day, I received the call from her son that she had passed away unexpectedly that morning. She made those lights flicker…her drama queen spirit was telling me that she was leaving.

I miss my lifelong friend. How do you plot on a family tree the important dates and times of all your adventures, misadventures, memories? And so I honor you, my dearest friend, Cathy Irene Covert.