BESTIES

When my best friend Rose died, I had just turned 15 and not coping very well with teenagehood. My grief coping mechanisms didn’t work very well either. I studied like crazy for a term and then gave it up and decided I needed a boyfriend. Soon enough I was receiving mail every too weeks.

It was not easy to get another bestie after, and even though I tried, I never really opened up to other girls for fear of heartbreak.

But in my late Twenties my girlfriends became the best thing in my life, and a priority.

 I discovered how sitting to watch- the tooth fairy- or some other senseless movie just to keep the tears from rolling and ruining your night, can heal emotional wounds. That with several rows of cupcakes. The mad joy at discovering an old bottle of wine with faded labels at the price of a milk box.

The laughter, the scolding and the promises to never receive calls from fellas that never could fathom our real worth.

Or when you are both so broke you decide to make huge meals together and split the food, but splurge when payday come.

“We just take a bus and go to Naivasha”.

My youngest girl friend is 13 this year, the oldest is 97, but we speak the same language.

Esther, the adolescent will tell me;“If you are gonna tie a saree tomorrow you better have your breakfast tonight”

It’s Saturday night, not a school night so we are having a – Malcom in the Middle- Marathon. She came in feeling low because her younger sister lost their lunch money, but now is giggling beside me and I’m feeling thank ful.

meme courtesy of Adam Amos