BFF

We were shuttled to and from the Saskatoon airport by Ms Catherine, who lives only a few minutes away and always goes above and beyond the duties of friendship in order to make my travels easier than they have any right to be. When we returned from Kelowna, she put us up at her place for the night with every comfort, and took us downtown for a late supper with Karen's daughter Danielle at the Bon Temps restaurant,  where my niece works.

I always sing the praises of Cathy, and there are good reasons. Among them are that she always sees the best in me, she likes me in spite of whatever my flaws are, and she is an understanding, empathetic and supportive person. How many of us can say we have even one friend to whom we can tell anything — anything at all — and still feel that we are seen with the most loving and kind eyes? I feel very fortunate to have known Cathy for the past four decades, since I was 15 years old.

Plus she's smart and funny.

Here's what I wrote in my journal when I was in Grade 12 at Luther College in Regina and Cathy popped in for a visit. She was in the grade ahead of me so had already finished high school and was living and working in Edmonton.

"Cathy ... showed up around 9:30 to surprise us, and does she ever look fantastic! I haven't seen her for so long. She's just beautiful. So we went for coffee, skipped chapel, and I got Mr. Stark to excuse me geo-trig. to be with Cath so I haven't been to any classes yet. She's staying till Sat., and flying back to Edmonton. It was really good to see her."

At Bon Temps