The loss of a good friend

I lost my good friend Kathy to lung cancer today.  She is the only person I have had in my life who was always behind me no matter what.  She was my mentor as a new nurse 19 years ago.  She found me while floating to the medical surgical floor from OB one day.  I was taking care of a terminally ill man and she came in and helped me.    Within a week, I was asked if I wanted to orient to Labor and Delivery.  Kathy has continued to be my chief cheerleader until the day she died.  When I was estranged from my daughter and couldn't get out of bed, she called me everyday to see how I was doing.  She never gave up on me.  We had many travel adventures over the years.  We went every year to the northen woods to an arts and craft camp.  Kathy taught me to basket weave and scrapbook as unselfishly as she showed me how to be a nurse.  She would by my children little gifts of candy and trinkets she thought they may like.  Kathy could be a force of nature when she felt that something important needed to be brought up.  She protected her patients fiercely no matter what the consequences, and she taught me to brave.  She valued cleanliness above all things.  I person could have many faults, but if they were clean it erased a lot of other sins.  She would tell me, "Well at least she keeps herself clean Nancy."  She like me loved a good meal and we would paln our road trips with plenty of meal and snack breaks.  She would say, "Well it's time to find a peice of chocolate We did lots of shopping in antique stores and little boutiques hoping to take home a treasure.  She loved to help me spend my money.  She would say, "Oh Nancy you just have to have that it is just perfect.  You can't leave that in the store."  She was just as candid if she didn't think something looked good though.  One day I wore pair pants that she didn't think looked good on me.  She told me, "not to wear those pants ever again."  And you know I didn't.  I will miss her most for sense of adventure, and her desire to try new things.  She saw the beauty of the fall leaves, and the flowers in someones garden.  She savored a good meal like she had mever eaten anything like it before.  She got excited about seeing a deer up north like she had never seen one before.