FOR A GOOD GUY

I make jokes about Mom being 93 and having a “Boy toy”, but in reality, it is a wonderful thing called friendship they share. To me friendship is the essence of life. True friendship means that someone is connected to you, will protect you and expects you to protect them.

I have had the best friend (Phil), a guy could have outside of his wife and mother, so I am blessed, we don’t think about what we did for each other, because we are too busy doing for one another.

Henry, Mom’s friend, is just that, a good person who cares for others, not himself so much. He has quietly become part of our family and as such we all love him. He has taken my mother to countless doctor appointments, helped her get around, and protects her privacy. He always worries about how she is feeling and tries to think along the lines of her self-pride, what she will tolerate and what she will not.

Since he is so kind and we are so appreciative, I decided to go to the local Italian market and with money some of my sisters have chipped in get him a gift. We are buying Henry for Christmas $200 worth of meals that they can share. The meals will be individually wrapped and all they have to do is unfreeze them and microwave. They can then just cut them in half and eat. This comes in handy when they are tired from a visit to a doctor’s office at the end of the day.

In this stinking world, we need to take care of each other. We need to know when someone is alone that they may need help, which we can’t always think about ourselves. Henry lives alone, he has no family, so when he goes to the hospital, we go and visit. He comes to all our family get-togethers, and is expected. We do this for all those we call our friends, all those we trust and come to love.

There are people in this world that can’t accept that kind of friendship. Maybe they think there is some underlying motive, or some kind of obligation, or maybe they just can’t appreciate that love from friendship should hold no bounds or requirements other than to accept. For them, they usually die alone, abandoned by all, children, parents and friends. They see only for themselves, too bad.