Dear Suzanne, a letter to you.

Ethel,
Girl, you sure have been on my mind a lot the past couple of days.  Maybe because I'm missing you and your amazing laugh.  I'm missing my best friend pretty bad, truth be told.  I miss you all the time but with the past few weeks of non stop chaotic activity, also known as my life, I haven't had the chance to sit down and really ponder. You know I love Marcus with all my heart and soul...but there are just some things a girl needs to dump on her best girlfriend and you always had the very best box of tissue at the ready for when I cried!  I need about 436 boxes tonight, so here goes.
I'm really trying to stay positive and strong and not dwell on the challenges and day to day shit life throws at me...where do I start?
Well, first, Miss E turns 21 in a couple of days, so I'm feeling damn old.  M & I spent the day with her yesterday and had such a blast!  We got to see her cute little house and take her to lunch and bowling.  It was a great day!  While seeing her in her "element" being off at college and living on her own and all, I can't help but cry with pride at the amazing woman she has become.  There is so much I want to tell her, talk with her about, I didn't want to leave her yesterday.
I know if this were one of our many email chains, you would tell me I should be proud of her...she's a great woman.  You would follow that up with "It's ok to be proud of yourself too, you raised her right."  You would also tell me "it's ok to cut the apron strings, but not the heart strings.  You see she's doing great - let the woman live her life and quit dwelling on you being 'old', you're just a baby yourself."  And you then you would so candidly remind me that you graduated high school the month before I was born...then to distract me from my pity-party, you would probably send me about a bajillion pictures of a red leather chair you are considering buying for your living room.  (I still have the emails with the pics of that chair, btw!)
Suz, I know you are up there just dancing your happy dance, hopefully to the music my Daddy is DJ'ing for all of Heaven to hear.  I know you two are as thick as thieves, up there, watching over me.  Dec. 11th will be the 4th anniversary of his passing and I miss him so much.  I know neither one of you want me to be sad, and I want so bad not to be, but it's sooo freakin' hard!  There's so much I want to tell my Dad and talk with him about.  I just want ONE MORE DAY with him, one where he's not in pain or suffering and we could just TALK (if you were here, you would be ripping the Kleenex out of the box at 957 mph, you'd hand me some and take some for yourself because we'd both be bawling.)  I wish you were here so you could tell me it's ok to miss him.  You would also tell me to get my ass in gear about this whole "writing" thing I'm trying my hand at.  Writing was his passion and the best way to honor him and make him proud would be to develop and focus on the writing skills and talent he passed on to me.  Then to throw in a little "comic relief," you would mention that your knee still hurts from that time you rolled down the driveway right out in to the street and were almost hit by that car, when we went to check your mail at 3:30 in the morning  and that you still can't walk down that hill, EVER, and have to drive to the mailbox if you want your mail. Good Times, Ethel, we sure had some good times, didn't we?
And speaking of cars, I know how you LOVED the Mini Cooper, but, after a 4 day road trip with M & Lola, we decided it was just too small for us.  However, you would love the brand new SUV we bought!  And, yes ma'am, of course I made sure it was good on the environment and it gets great gas millage.  It's really awesome, actually,  It has all the bells & whistles and is way more fitting for me & Marcus & Lola.
Thanksgiving is this week and what prompted this letter is to let you know, even though I'm missing you, I'm so thankful you were in my life.  You are the most kind hearted, sincere, loving, accepting and golden soul hippie chick I've ever had the honor of knowing.  You were taken away WAY too soon to my liking, but my life is so much better for having had you in it.  You were a ray of sunshine in some dark days and you taught me how to be a better friend, for that I am thankful!  You had the loudest, greatest laugh within a 4 mile radius.  And with our wild antics, you were the Ethel to my Lucy, for that I am eternally thankful!  I love your guts and miss you like crazy.  Throw me a penny every now & then to say "HI".  And please overlook the grammatical errors, that's what editors are for ;-)
 ~Love, Love,
Lucy