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Monday, November 16, 2015

16 - Monica

For the month of November I’ve decided to post each day about a person or people who have influenced my life for good. There’s no way I could include each and every person in one month or even one year, and for that I hope you’ll forgive me. This year, especially, has brought an acute awareness of the kindness and generosity which surrounds me and my kids, so here’s one attempt at giving thanks.

16 – Monica


What happens when you’re the kind of person who, say, chooses a favorite cashier at the grocery store and always go through her line? Long story short: she marries your brother.

When James described Monica to me, and we were trying to figure out how he knew this girl from a class at UVSC, and we discovered it was because I went to Maceys every day just to get out of the apartment, we laaaaaaughed because WHUT.

The legend goes that Monica said to herself, ‘While James in on his mission, I’ll become best friends with Jenny, and then he’ll HAVE to marry me.’ Well played. Point: Monica.

Monica taught my oldest (at least, probably the rest of them, too, I can’t know) how to read. And probably tie shoes, too. I love that Monica was one of the first people to hold Emma, who was born shortly after James went on his mission. We did lots of things while he was gone-- took plenty of road trips to Enoch (near Cedar City) where Monica’s parents hosted my circus as if we were family. Monica went with me to Jeremy’s funeral when Em was just a couple weeks old. Her creativity and generosity and kindness shaped my life at critical times.

Monica and James got married on my sixth anniversary (D’OH!), and for a while all our relationships changed, and while that’s how it should be, with hindsight I can see why certain things happened the way they did, and thank goodness those things aren’t a problem anymore.

Monica has stood up for me, sometimes as a lone voice, from what I understand, and I appreciate it more than I can say. Still, her thoughtfulness blesses my life. It’s not like it used to be, when her waking hours were either working or with me and my kids, and things will never go back to that. But I am forever changed because of those years, because of hours and hours and hours of conversation and laughter and tears and phone calls. What a fantastically blessed life when your friend becomes your sister.

Thanks, Monica. I love you.

#IHaveAwesomeFriends

2 comments:

Monica said...

I actually said that to James, not just myself. And I'm glad it worked :).

Also, my favorite memory from our early days together is the road trip when Rae wouldn't quit screaming and you told me to roll my window down and when I did you chucked her candy out the window (sorry, Rae!). We were at the tail end of a long trip and the delirium made us both think that was soooo funny!

Also again, You saved me during that time too. I was needing a friend and you were the best. I'm glad that our friendship has evolved into what it is. Sisters are the best kind of friends.

Emily said...

I love when this big world turns out to be a very, very small world.