Sheri

We were friends for 53 years. We met when we were in Kindergarten, had chicken pox together, sleepovers, and secret bacon fry-ups over a tin can in the backyard. We played ball with her poodle and lay on the family room floor reading Archie comics. We were baptized on the same day. She good-naturedly participated in plays I wrote and staged, and she helped me rip ivy off my parents' house and clean the rocks in my Zen garden. She was a server at my wedding reception and forgave me for not being around when she got married. 

Sheri visited me often here in Canada, aiming to visit at least once in every month of the year. One year she went to St. Jacobs and the Mennonite market, and one year she attended the Fergus Highland Games with me. She never complained about the bizarre lodgings I plunked her into, and she enjoyed serving and working with me on whatever project I was in the middle of. We both enjoyed doing puzzles, and she was the type of low-maintenance friend you could sit and read with, with no expectation of having to talk. She liked lemongrass and Nancy Drew, while I liked mint and the Hardy Boys, but we could always meet in the middle. On her last trip in April, she spent half the time cooking health food for me and trying to convince me to go off sugar. She introduced me to The Chosen, and we walked along Lake Huron and visited a friend's newborn chicks.

I was in awe of the fish ponds and sports days and outings she planned for her family. We went to New York City together and saw Come From Away on Broadway and ate amazing pizza. We stayed in Park City one year, and the power kept going off. We talked about going on a spectacular trip for our 60th birthdays. She was always generously cooking up great adventures.

She's gone on this latest adventure without me, now. She passed away on Friday night, and Saturday I had to go to the Fergus Highland Games without her. 

I believe this life isn't all there is, and someday I'll see her again. In the meantime, no doubt she'll be organizing angels into softball teams and converting St. Peter to cauliflower crusts. She's probably tie-dying heaven. But some of the colour has gone out of my world. I'm not quite sure how to navigate this new planet without Sheri in it.