So tonight I am remembering a very special friend who passed away two years ago. She lived a very fascinating life, and I've always wanted to write about her. So I think I'll write a bit about her from time to time. I'll only use her first name, Sally, and I'll use fake names for her living associates, if I mention them.

    I met my dear friend, Sally, when she sold me my house. She was quite a beautiful lady even in her seventies when she met me. She was drop dead Greta Garbo gorgeous when she was young. Its funny, some people you meet, and its like there is this link between you right from the beginning. That is the way it was for Sally and I, even though there was a considerable difference in our ages. I always told her we were sisters underneath our skin. 

     Sally was gloriously loquacious. She could out talk me any day of the week and twice on Sunday. She was a wonderful friend to me. I could tell her anything, even the tough stuff, the imperfections about myself, the mistakes of the past that haunted me, and she listened without judgment, and always had encouragement for me. I believe that rarely in life are we gifted with a friend that seems to understand us from the inside out, and when we find one, we should treasure that kind of friendship, because it is like gold. I have been blessed to have a few friends like that, and Sally was definitely one of them, and I loved her dearly! Honestly, I loved so many things about her. She was certainly not perfect, as fallable as I am myself, but even her imperfections endeared her to me. She was somewhat Bipolar, I believe. She sometimes would call me crying, most all the time I knew her, but it was much worse in the last two years of life before God, through thyroid cancer took her to be with him. The rest of the time she was joyful, cheerful, and did I mention loquacious:^)? She made me smile, laugh, cry, and increased my faith in God everyday I had the joy of spending time with her. Its hard to know where to start with her story, because she was such an influence. 

There is no way to sum up this kind of friendship into simple words, so I will just have to share it as I experienced it, in short bursts. I could write a book about this, and probably earn some money on it, but our friendship was one of love freely given and so I feel it only fitting to freely share Sally's story. A couple things I should preface this with: First, For right now I am typing on my kindle because lightning fried my video card on my computer, so please ignore typing errors, because it is almost impossible to go back and correct them on this thing. Secondly, this is about someone's real life, and I intend to tell the truth of Sally's life. This means that some things may be slightly graphic in nature. Things happen to people over the course of a lifetime that are not always pretty. Please also know I talked to Sally many times about writing her life story. She was perfectly aware that I would do this some day. 

I met Sally, when I called her Real Estate office as I was bull doggedly looking for a home for my family. Unbeknownst to me, certain other of Sally's colleagues warned her away from working with me. They told her that I had look at all kinds of property for months and hadn't purchased anything. It was very true. I was looking for property with certain characteristics, and I was unwilling to settle for a house in town. People who know me well, know I don't give up on my friends or what I really want. I am a fighter, and at the time I met Sally, I was fighting for a real home for my family. What Sally was that was different than most of her colleagues was willing. I needed someone who was complete in my corner, and willing to do whatever it took, within the law, to get us a house. I am a former real estate agent myself. When it comes to buying property, I know my business. I had a specific loan program, and certain requirements that the lender wanted. Sally took me wherever I wanted to go, plus some. 

On the day we found our house, she showed me several places. By this time, we had already made another offer that had fallen through due to some shenanigans by another agent in her office. Anyway, that day we went and looked at a couple of places. The first I can't remember. The second though I'll never forget, because it was an 80 acre parcel being sold by a 35 year old man, with a lovely wife, and daughter who was dying of cancer. I'll never forget sitting in that man's living room, which was covered in pictures of his beautiful family in happier times, as Sally quietly talked to this man who was obviously dying. I was so impressed with her caring attitude as she spoke to him. The property was beautiful, but a little out of our price range. My heart went out to that man sitting among the pictures of his baby girl, and knowing he would leave her soon. It was excruciating. 

      After leaving that sick man's house, who died a short time later, Sally said to me, "I know its not the amount of acreage you want, but there is this house down the road I have been wanting to look at. How about coming with me?". I told her I would, and the moment I laid eyes on the place, I knew it was the one. Sally laughed at me that day, and for many years after, because I looked at every outbuilding, called the chicken house a chicken hotel, and finally let her coax me into looking at the actual house. She always said that I was much more impressed with the chicken house than where I would be living. I knew that Joe would love the place, and she and I made plans for an offer. As we drove home, we stopped to eat, and that was when Sally told me the story of what she was going through at the time. She told me her fiance had been beating her. As she told me this story, I could see what a strong lady she was, and advised her to dump that man. We had a long talk, and she did exactly what I said, and kicked him out. Sally always felt badly about that situation, because she knew what had gotten her there was that she was disobedient to God. More about this another time...