Nine years ago, I had just moved back home with my infant - escaping a marriage that would even torture Satan. I had reconnected with my friends, and the livin' was good.... On the 13th of July in 2000 - my world turned upside down. My best friend, George was swimming in Perry Lake, he went under to retrieve some dropped sunglasses for a friend and disappeared. It was probably, at that time, the worst thing I could ever think of experiencing. I remember sitting by the phone - glued to the television- surrounded by people that I grew up with, and that all loved George so very much - praying, waiting...hardly breathing. We all had our own thoughts and hopes - perhaps he was disoriented and swam to shore? He was a certified scuba diver, a strong swimmer - drowning was not even a possibility, right? Wrong. Impossible things happen. They found his body shortly before 9 am the next day. I sit back and reflect on my uni-browed best friend and realize that although life is so devastatingly different and wrong without him, in his death he gave me a lifelong gift. I feel strongly that he made sure there was someone to take care of me and my son. Jeremy and I would not have ever taken the time to connect in the manner that we did had life not taken such a turn. In the two weeks after George's death, I found myself surrounded at home by people that no matter how far we grow apart, I will always hold dear to my heart. You do not endure the loss of your 'brother', your best friend, without the group of people that move along in life holding you up along the way. Life has taken many different turns, but it has taken me in so many wonderful - and some equally horrible - places. My support group dissolved - and all that has been standing through everything has been my rock - otherwise known as my husband. I will forever thank George for bringing us together, all the while cussing him for leaving me....
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