The Diary of A Beautiful Friendship

The Diary

of

A Beautiful Friendship

Dear Diary,

I was supposed to meet Janine at the theatre, today. But she showed up on my doorstep when I was an hour late. No anger, just patient, as always. In fact, she knew what the matter was.

"What did he do this time?" she asked soon as I opened the door.

She knew that when I'm upset, I take a long time to get ready; and she knew what mainly made me upset. It's my husband, Billy. She knew from experience like I know that there's always something with him.

He lies; he cheats; he breaks his promises. This time a woman called looking for him. I pretended to be his sister visiting his house; and she told me that they've been seeing eachother. I felt like a boulder hit me in my stomach.

Janine sat with me as I cried with her arm wrapped around me. "You deserve better than him. You're way to good for him, Sandra," she said.

Dear Diary,

Billy wants to take me on a trip to Hawaii. He knows I always wanted to go on a romantic trip to Hawaii with him. And he knows that ever since I was a child, I've wanted to go to Hawaii with some man I love. I always told myself that I would one day. When Billy told me we were going, my heart wanted to jump out of my chest. Sometimes, he shows me that he really does care about me.

I took off from work and spent weeks preparing for my trip. I couldn't wait.

Then Janine called and told me that her mother has cancer. She's an only child. Her mother and father have been all she has. Her father already passed away. It's going to be hard for Janine. I couldn't figure out how I was going to enjoy my vacation to Hawaii with my dear friend here suffering alone and handling something so awful alone. I finally decided no Hawaii for me. I'm going to be here with Janine supporting her.

Dear Diary,

I spent hours sitting with Janine as she cried about the possibility of losing her mother. I never left her house. I did all her chores - cooking, cleaning, running errands. I lived at her house the whole time she was going through her horrible struggle.

As I cleaned, I found the most beautiful jewelry - rubies, pearls, gold, silver. "I've had it since I was a child," she told me. "My mother gave it to me to make me feel beautiful. Sandra, all it does is bring me pain now; because, I'm afraid I'm losing my mom who gave it to me."

"Sandra's here, Darling," I said and embraced her.

I was at Janine's side for months; and then we found out that her mother is going to live. We are both so thankful. It hurts that I missed out on going to Hawaii with my husband. But the pleasure I feel about Janine's mother's recovery is greater.

I asked Janine how she felt about the jewelry her mother gave her, now. She said she recovered her profound love and appreciation for it. It had always meant the world to her; because, it was her mother's way of telling her that she was beautiful.

As far as my trip to Hawaii goes, as painful as it was to miss out on going on that trip with my husband, it hurt even more when I found out that, once I couldn't go with him, he went with another woman. He had told me that he was going to go with friends.

Dear Diary,

I was never able to forget about the beautiful jewelry that I found in Janine's house which her mother had given her when she was a child. I, finally, decided to go ahead and ask to borrow it sometime.

"Too late," said Janine. "I needed tickets to Hawaii and enough money to have an expensive trip because of expensive hotels, expensive restaurants, a first class flight, etc. I want to be able to afford to have the best time; and that's expensive especially for two."

"You're going to Hawaii?" I asked.

"If you'll go with me and be my companion."

My heart lit up; and tears came to my eyes. I truly do have the best friend in the world. "Of course, I'll go," I said and then embraced her so tightly. "I love you," I said.

THE END