Reflections
THE AMAZING GRACE of friendship
W
by NATION HAHN
Friend (n.) - One attached to another by affection or esteem
We toss the word friend around easily. There are Facebook “friends.” We call the person we just met for coffee for the first time “friend.” Introduce the person we hung out with at that conference once as our “friend.” To me, friendship is much more. It’s a bond – a union. For many years, my wife Jamie was my best friend. The person I wanted to speak with the moment I had news, good or bad. The person whom I trusted resolutely with each secret. We shared virtually every experience together for four years and four days of marriage, for 16 months of dating prior to being wed, for a year before we ever kissed. She was my mentor. My partner. My person. And then we were attacked one Monday evening and that life was no more.
110 | WALTER
(Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
The morning after Jamie took her last breath I woke up to a world that was still inexplicably spinning. I looked around in disbelief. I felt like an explorer who had landed in a place that no one knew existed. Among the lessons no one can teach you is what you ought to do when your best friend isn’t there any longer. Even without this lesson, our resilient human nature kicks in and forces us forward in the early stages of grief. And when it needs a nudge, through it all, through the pain, friends make the difference. Friends came in the early hours at the hospital as word of the attack spread and those friends never left in the days that followed Jamie’s passing. A thousand people showed up at the funeral and embraced illustration by BRIAN HUBBLE
