L

This week I received one of those 'slap on the side of the head - get life in perspective' moments ... A friend has just received news that she has a malignant pelvic growth - she is my age - mid 50's...

I hadn't heard from L since before Christmas - we really have only 'just kept up contact' since I moved away 12 years ago - our lives have taken us in different directions and we have 'drifted' significantly...

I first met L when I went to a meeting of the then called "Mother's Club" when my eldest daughter had just started Preps. I can recall the first time I saw her - I remember thinking what a well groomed woman she was and she had the most amazing hair style that was all of the go back then in the mid seventies...

We became firm friend and shared all the sorts of activities that those years of primary school brings - we did Mother's Day stalls, election cake stall, lunch days, school fetes, school council, etc. Outside of school hours we did the occasional dinner party with spouses and other friends. We went shopping together, had birthday lunches, did various phases of craft together - she still talks about the four foot geese cross stitch I started 'way back when' - her piece was finished in a respectable time - mine is unfinished and pushed to the back of the cupboard somewhere... In other words our lives were fairly involved as you do when your kids are in the same age range....

Yesterdays news shocked me back to my core and I had to read the email quite a few times before it sunk in... I rung her immediately and we chatted for a couple of hours at the end of our conversation I left her laughing and I made a silent commitment to myself that I would see her soon. She is prepared for the long haul - surgery and chemotherapy. L is an optimistic person but she's a realist - both her parents had cancer - neither survived it - L knows she is preparing herself for battle...