Thank you for being a friend.

Today's blog has nothing to due with my diet.  I received news last night that a very dear friend of my daughter, Teresa, died.  She was 28-years old.  We are trying to grasp the finality of this, and quite frankly, I feel that I'm in a bad dream at the moment, hoping that someone will wake me up.

I want to tell you about Katie.  One of the reasons that we're having a hard time realizing that she's dead is because she was always full of life.  She entered the Dickinson's world in 1998 when Teresa and she were members of the Morton High track team.  They gravitated toward each other, because they both realized at once that they were alike...not a part of the "cool people" who ran MHS.  They were friends from that point on.  I can remember driving them to the July 4th fireworks when they weren't able to do so themselves.  I remembering their repartee, laughing so hard at times that I could barely stay on the road.  They remained true friends throughout high school.  When they both decided to attend the U of I, they decided to be roommates.  They lived together for two years.

Katie and Teresa were never inseparable.  At the U of I they had different circles of friends, but they always had time for each other as well.  Teresa joined a sorority, and quite frankly, Katie would probably have preferred to bomb most sororities.  Katie was more eclectic, Teresa, more trendy.  Katie was loud and full of vim, Teresa could be reticent.  They complemented each other.

After graduation, Katie went to Boston, Teresa went to East Lansing.  They  stayed in touch, making catty remarks about all of the Mortonites who well, were destined to remain Mortonites.  (This topic was always one of my favorites to listen in on when they were together!)  In 2009, their paths crossed again.  Katie and her sister Megan moved to Chicago where Teresa was living.  Teresa was going through a rather tough time, and the two sisters literally pulled her from her funk.  They refused to let her dwell on the negative, and they brought happiness back into her life.  They actually made her laugh again, so hard that Teresa told me she had to tell them to stop, because they were making her laugh so hard that it hurt!

Katie was never much for staying in one place for long, and she migrated to sunny California to study for a masters in film-making in 2010.  Megan followed in 2011.  This left a void in all of our lives.  I didn't get to hear any more stories about these crazy sisters, I didn't get to meet up with them for drinks and dinner, and Teresa didn't have her two best friends with her in Chicago.  Over Christmas break this year they were back in central Illinois, and we met up for coffee.  I really have no idea why I went along with Teresa to this coffee, but I'm glad I did.  I had no idea it would be the last time I would see Katie.

There is little comfort when someone young dies.  I guess that they will never have to face the rigors and trials of  old age, but that is all I can really come up with.  I do know that there will be a void where Katie was.  She was a big girl...and she had a big laugh, big plans and mostly a big heart.  I will miss her.