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BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

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    As I sit in my living room,  I am surrounded by many family photos.   The one I am most impressed by is a wooden framed photo of my Mother Leipa, and her  two best friends Angie, and Mary as teenagers.      Their friendship  started in their early teens  and lasted until their deaths.  They did everything together, school,  parties, picnics, dances .  They all married in their twenties and started their families.   Children, baptisms, godmothers,  they all baptized each others children and remained even closer.  The three friends always tried to keep in touch through the years.  Life isn't a fairytale, where you live happily ever after.   Of the dear friends, Angie was the first to pass away.  She was in her forties.  Mom and Mary were devastated.  Mary passed away in her sixties, and as each friend passed, I could see the hurt mom carried.   My dear Mother Leipa,  passed away in her eighties.  My mother many times spoke to me of their loving friendship, a sisterhood of best friends, broken only  by death.  Mom missed them both very much.  I know they're all together again, beautiful, young and still, best friends forever!