MY FRIEND, MELODY

Okay, here goes. One of my oldest and dearest friends passed away last week. She was 44 and had battled brain cancer four years. We grew up together in a small town where everybody knows everybody. Sometimes that's a bad thing, but often times, it's a good thing. I didn't grow up in a Baptist church, but she invited me to go to church camp with her in the 7th grade. That's when my love for Falls Creek began. This blog could go on for pages, but I'll try to keep it brief. [wink] We married friends. I mean, her husband and my husband to this day are best friends. We were in each other's weddings. We didn't live in the same town during the college years, but still managed to see each other once a month or so. After college, we moved to Oklahoma City and they lived about 30 min. away. They bought a boat and our summers were filled with weekends at the lake. We learned to water ski together, we camped together, shopped, everything you do with your best friends. She was the first friend to get pregnant. Oh the fun we had shopping for baby stuff, decorating the nursery, reading baby books. Jessica was born July 12th 1986. She took her sweet time too...it was about 3:00 in the morning! We didn't care, it was fun to be there...we finally had our baby! And it was a girl!! Little did I realize how important that fact would be 18 years later. Years passed and we kept in touch even though we moved a zillion times. Our parents still lived in the same small town so Thanksgiving and Christmas trips home included visits with their families too. We had two boys, they had two girls. We have other friends who live in Dallas now and they had three girls. The first summer we lived here, all nine of them stayed with us. It was wall to wall people and I loved it! We didn't realize just a few months later, our lives would be turned upside down.

I'll never forget the call from Dewayne when he told me there was something wrong with Melody. I was sitting in the Academy parking lot waiting on Clint to buy soccer stuff. They weren't sure what was wrong with her, but they feared a brain tumor. She was 39. For the next four years, they made countless trips down here to go to MD Anderson for her Dr. visits. We've wondered many times if that was one of the reasons we had to move down here. We were able to take care of her and her family when she had surgery. They stayed with us and we picked them up at the airport many times. She had good days and bad days....but she never complained about her situation. Many people prayed for her healing. I'll never understand why she wasn't healed here on earth, why her husband lost his wife, her kids lost their mom, her parents lost their daughter, why my friend died. They played "Live like you were dying" at her funeral. It really means more when you know someone that lived that song. I've learned to not take people for granted, don't sweat the small stuff (and it's all small stuff), laugh more, criticize less, take more pictures (yes, I really mean that), just enjoy your loved ones more. As I was looking through old pictures (the ones that were in a box in the top of my closet, not the neatly organized ones in album), I could only find one picture of Mel and I together. It's from 1986. I have many pictures of her, but only this one of us together.

Well, it wasn't very brief but I really needed to get this post finished. A little more closure for me. I wish you could of all known her....you would have loved her.