My Best Friend

This is the 16th anniversary of my mother's death. I just can't believe it. On the one hand, it seems like yesterday. On the other hand, like another galaxy far, far away. Either way, I still miss her so much. This one's for you, Mama.

After months of allowing things to pile up and pile up to the point I could not stand being in here anymore, I finally tackled the impossible task of filing in my office.

In a folder whimsically named "things to save that aren't bills," I found two old papers that surprised me. One was a 30 year old transcript I used to memorize the fawning introduction of my boss I used to have to give at client meetings when I worked on Wall Street. That was pretty amazing in its own right, but it was the second one that stopped me in my tracks.

Though it was undated, it contained a few details that provided a date for me. I was driving, so it had to be after October, 1970. But I was still in school - in fact, a senior in high school, so it had to be before June, 1971. And anyway, I recognized the paper, and the brown flair pen I used to write it, and knew immediately what it was.

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