My friend...

Where do I begin??? This week I have been mourning the loss of a childhood friend...when we were children his family and my family were always together..if they weren't at our house, we were at theirs...I swear we had a rut wore in the road from our many trips back and forth between the two houses. He was always the one who made people laugh...he was so much fun to be around. He comes from a family of 12 children so there was always somebody to hang out with.  There was 6 girls in my family.  It was mostly me and my two older sisters that hung around with the 5 youngest in their family.  When we went on vacation to the lake we would always have to take a couple of them with us. So many wonderful memories...when we went to their house we would all sit around while they sang and played many different instruments. They were all very musical. My mom has many cassette recordings of them singing!! We would make trips to the beach, we would go biking, walk to the store, build camps in the woods..no matter what we did we did it together. We even had a band when we were really young called the "Peanut Butter Bums"...lol We would get all our instruments together and play on them and sing our little song as we paraded out the road between our houses. They were our best of friends!! Sadly as the years passed we started our own individual lives and we slowly grew apart..we all took different paths in life and lost contact over time but even though we didn't see each other much they always held a special place in our hearts as we did theirs. So many wonderful times so many great memories..... RIP Normand...even though we haven't talked in years you have been in my thoughts many times throughout those years..I always knew where you were and what you were doing but sadly we never got to talk.  You will always have a special place in my heart as will the rest of your family...thanks for the beautiful memories my friend...you may be gone but you will never ever be forgotten!! I love you Normand....rest in peace my dear friend....until we meet again....