Happy Birthday to My BFF

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By Andrea Rouda

I KNOW she’s reading this because, well, she reads this almost every day! (Now that’s what I call a friend.) I won’t name her because she probably wouldn’t want me to. And besides, it allows me to praise her to the skies without her getting embarrassed and without anyone who disagrees with me writing a rude comment.

Her long list of admirable qualities includes:

Kindness: Each morning she reads the entire daily metropolitan newspaper, word by word, to a friend who had a stroke several years ago and who can no longer read.

Adventuresome: She has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, sailed (in a little boat, not an ocean liner) from California to Hawaii with a group of strangers after answering an ad seeking crew members, spent ten days in Haiti, and trapped hawks in remote areas of Utah for months at a time for the benefit of science.

Nurturing: Besides raising three children and currently participating in the daily care of her grandson, she nursed her husband back to health after he suffered a debilitating stroke several years ago. She makes a mean chicken matzoh ball soup.

Intelligent: She plays Bridge like a champ and belongs to a book club and actually reads the books. She played Wordle a few times but stopped because it was too easy and not a challenge.

Talented: She’s an exceptionally great cook and extremely organized, preparing huge meals for as many as 20 people for all holidays. She also plans all the meals and buys all the food (with necessary condiments!) for about 10 (or more) people for a two-week long camping trip every summer in the Grand Tetons.

Loves Animals: She’s had a long  parade of dogs and cats who, if they could talk, would say she’s the best owner any pet could have. She paid many thousands of dollars for surgery when her daughter’s miniature schnauzer was attacked by a bigger dog and had his side all but ripped open! She once called a pet psychic for help when her timid indoor cat accidentally got outside in a snowstorm, and she found him!

Funny: She cracks me up, and hardly anyone does.

So Happy Birthday to You-Know-Who-You-Are! And may you have many more and most important of all, outlive me!

—Andrea Rouda

Andrea Rouda blogs at The Daily Droid.