Over the Fence

I have a friend who,about a month ago, found a lump. In an instant her life changed, and I wasn't there.

Years ago...six kids go, actually, a young fresh couple moved into their first house. It was an 1890 Salt box in the Village. There was a fence and on the other side a new friend...a sister.

Our boys played,competed,did things that made us wonder 'what in the world were we raisng' but mostly they and we laughed.

I had babies and she welcomed them too. I think she thought I was strange. I couldn't always understand where she was coming from either. We taught and we learned.

Debbie is a strong women. She beats odds. That is just what she does. You know when people say 'Oh so and so is a strong women' how they normally mean she is a ....well you know. ...it rhymes with witch?

Well I am sure Debbie has been called that. She doesn't often take the bull. She will call you on the carpet, because she see right through the crap and gets to the point. But unlike those other women, Debbie feels and is very intuitive. She cares.

She adopted four kids that others would have ignored. She didn't ignore them and say 'some day I'd like to adopt'...she couldn't. Her heart wouldn't allow it.

She asked me one time what I thought about it. I struggled because I knew that the importance of a 2 parent home. I grew up without a father and... But the system these precious kids were in....ugh. She stretches my brain. I love her.

Debbie fell in love with her one son, Daniel and literally went around the world to bring him home. When the corrupt government of his country kept her captive.....she did not crumble like they assumed a single women would. She stood up to them and won.

I remember one day hearing the front screen door open. I assumed it was one of the kids. It was. I walked in to find her son using my bathroom. It was closer.

I think she thinks I am odd. Having so many kids, wanting to stay home to raise them.I don't buy into the 'you can have it all' propaganda.' I mean you can have it all, but just not right now. I have a charmed life.


We have gone through trials together.I kneel to pray for relief and she comes over-picks me up and gets me to do what the Whisper says. Debbie claims to be an Atheist, but I don't buy it. She had a trial with her job. She stressed about it. I made her pray, lol. Hey! She got a VP job at a hospital that morning!

We talk. Over the fence.

One of the best vacations in my life was with Debbie and her boys. She welcomed us into her tradition of renting an apartment on 16th street at the shore. She has done it since she was a little girl. I woke-up and we watched dolphins off shore from our deck.AMAZING. I still want to go back.

Barney,her dog scared me,even after all those years together. I cried when he died.

She went back to school and she got her Masters. She, still raising 3 boys, decided to go back to college. She is now courted by the big wigs on the west coast..... I mean she can drop some names. PHEW!
. When she walked across the stage...she called me. What an honor that was for me that she would think of me at that important moment.

Yesterday she went into surgery and at 4pm EST became,I believe, cancer free.

Now I want to help her and I am over 2000 miles away. I feel so powerless. I can send her my people in my network with black name tags, but I wish it was me.

All I can do is love her...my sister and talk to her

over the fence.