June 3

Through my childhood I had many “best friends” but they were not lasting since we moved a lot throughout my youth.  I recall my first really good friend when I was in Grade 2, her name was Marilyn Greenhill and I stood up for our friendship in the face of bullies.  They were attempting to force me to abandon my friendship with Marilyn because she didn’t have a father.  I was not to be bullied and stood boldly against the girls by using my strongest weapon “My father says . . . “  in this case “that I can have any friend I want”.

Then there was Heidi and Cindy (sisters) and “Little Susan” when we lived in Burlington.

My longest lasting friendship came when we moved to Montreal when I was 15 and in Grade 10.  Ninette was in my homeroom class as well as in my Art class.  We were friends within the first week.  Ninette was simply the kind of girl who could smile and win friends.  She has a fantastic sense of humour and I remember how she would insist on staying in the lunchroom until she had finished eating her banana as she refused to “look ridiculous” eating a banana in the hallway.

My dad got transferred back to Winnipeg at Easter time in March of 1969 so Ninette and I only had about 6 months of school friendship.  However, we have had nearly 50 years of faithful correspondence often writing once a week not only in the first fever of the correspondence but even in later years.  In the past year Ninette has started telephoning me almost weekly because for a while I was unable to even hold a pen in my hands never mind write.

We are so in sync with each other that often we will both be reaching for the phone at the same time and when we corresponded we frequently would cross letters in our impatience to tell each other something “important”.

Ninette as an example of a true friend, never judging and always in good humour, at least with me if not with the world.  We have so many interests in common and as her husband has marvelled more than once “it amazes me that you can be friends with someone for 50 years when you only knew each other for a few minutes at the age of 15”.  But when you know you’ve met a kindred spirit you hold on to them for dear life.

Salute to one of the longest friendships of my life.