On this date 21 years ago, I lost my best friend Cris.

When we were toddlers, she used to come over to my house. As soon as I'd open the door, she'd kick me hard in the shin - then we'd go out to play. I never knew why she did that, but I decided to pay her back one day. When I saw her approaching, I opened the door and kicked her hard before she could kick me - then we went out to play.

She never kicked me after that - maybe she just wanted to know who I was before deciding to be my friend.

When we were 9, a huge tornado struck our town - on my 9th birthday. When they cleaned up the mess, they piled everything onto a vacant lot about a mile away. We'd set alarm clocks underneath our pillows, sneak out of our houses and head over to our "mountain" to watch the sunrise. We had to hide from the police along the way because of curfew. We'd then sneak back into our houses without ever getting caught by the police OR our parents.

When she became ill, I'd spend my Wednesday afternoons with her - was allowed the time off work because I worked every other Saturday.

She had an apartment on the North Side along the Lake, at "Artisans Way," and we'd take walks along the beach when she felt well enough to go out. Her favorite spot was where her boyfriend had spraypainted her name on the concrete, and an anonymous artist decorated it with her favorites - swans, mountains and moonlight. It was beautiful.

It took my breath away when I lost her. She'd been my best friend and confidante my entire life - or at least as long as I could remember. She was also supposedly in remission, so it was a shock to all of us. She and I had plans to take a cruise together to celebrate our freedom - me from my ex-husband, and her from illness and hospitals.

She wrote a poem shortly before she died, and her parents printed it on her funeral card.

"The Poetry of a Sunset"

One of the few things in this world
that we cannot change
Man in his arrogance and so-called power
Some things remain the same.

Some still watch the sun go down,
some are still aware
Of the beauty and wonder
in something that's always been there.

The horizons we watch it setting on
may change as our lives progress;
It marks the end of a day in our lives,
reminds us to cherish whatever we have left.

*****
Thanks for all the great memories. Rest in peace, my dear friend.