I think like most people my very first best friend was my cousin. We grew up together in a small town in Texas called Madisonville. We went to church together for a bit, we spent the night at each other’s houses, we played together at our Nana’s house and we played guitar together.

I’m talking about my cousin Clara. Its no surprise to my other cousins who I’m talking about. It was common knowledge that Clara and I were best friends. We would go off on our own and exclude our siblings all the time. We just really enjoyed each other’s company the most. We’re also very close in age and used to have the same initials.

Our father’s are brothers so we grew up with the same last name. In a way I think that made me feel even closer to her. I would, and still do, always look forward to seeing her. We mostly saw each other at our Nana’s house, (she is our dads’ mom) where we would ride our bikes, drive (crash) our Uncle Bobby’s golf cart and come up with all kinds of imaginary games and scenarios to play. Our Nana would take us to a Bluegrass festival in Grapeland, Texas at Salmon Lake where we would play on the playground, sleep in a camper and ride around on the golf cart. I have so many fond memories with her.

One of our most memorable moments was…honestly I can’t think of one. I know that sounds horrible that I can’t think of one single incident in a lifetime of friendship but that’ what happens when you become a mom. I know she’ll understand. She loves me anyway. I just remember when we: she, a couple of her siblings and a couple of my siblings, were all over at our Nana’s driving around the golf cart. Our Nana and Aunt Flossie told us to be careful and don’t go too fast but of course we didn’t listen. We drove that thing as fast as it would go and we got the battery down to when we tried to get it up a tiny hill it didn’t make it and started backwards and slammed us into a tree behind the house. We all laughed so hard because we knew we would be in trouble if we didn’t get that golf cart away from that tree before they came out and caught us.

When I was about eleven my family moved to a town about forty five minutes away from Madisonville and I wouldn’t get to see Clara very often anymore. We decided to become pen pals. I looked forward to her letters all the time and I loved writing her. Then of course when we got a little older we started emailing each other. Now we text or keep in touch via Facebook. It’s a wonderful age of communication.