valentine's day Friends till the End

valentine's day

Its not just a great Lifetime movie starting Ms. Shannen Doherty, it exemplifies how I feel about a certain friend of mine.

Tomorrow the Jetplanes are heading south to enjoy the wedding festivities of one of my best friends in the entire world, Jill. Jill is getting married to her long time beau and I am thrilled to be able to partake in the ceremonies and be one of her bridesmaids.

I cannot say enough kind words about Jill. She is and always has been this positive ray of energy that makes everyone happy around her. She has an amazing sense of humor and a contagious laugh. She's a true friend and will have your back no matter what.

I met Jill freshman year of college. We were in the same rush class. We were suite mates in the sorority house. We hung out every single weekend and most days during the week. We had a lot of fun crazy times...some which we might not always remember :) or some we wish we could forget.

But on top of all of that, Jill is truly a walking miracle. Right after graduating from college I moved to Indy and Jill stayed in her hometown (our college town). She was working at a clothing store in the mall during the time right after graduation. We had all planned to converge back at college for Homecoming, which at my school was a weekend of pure debauchery that wasn't beat the entire year, and believe me WE TRIED.

I don't recall who called me, but I got a call letting me know Jill was in a terrible car accident. She suffered some pretty severe injuries including breaking neck. She broke the same vertebra as Christopher Reeves, luckily hers broke the opposite direction that his did.

Yes, she was "this close" to be paralyzed. "THIS CLOSE" to being paralyzed. I remember getting to see her for the 1st time. I saw her right after she got out of the hospital. She was sitting in her mom's car, in a Chinese food restaurant parking lot and I can honestly say I was scared to see my friend. I was happy to see my friend alive and believe it or not, still smiling, but I was sad to see my friend in a halo. I wanted to give her a hug but couldn't, really. Over the next few months, I tried to visit her as much as I could. Luckily, living in Indy I was only about 2 hours away from her.

She had a rough road ahead of her but she went through it like a champ. She battled through her recovery and came out on the other side a hell of a woman. As I said before, she is truly a walking miracle and I'm lucky to have her in my life and honored to call her my friend. Every single time I see her, I thank God for keeping her in our life and allowing her to walk. I honestly think about it every single time.

I love you Jilly Bean. You are a wonderful woman and I'm so completely thrilled to watch you marry your best friend this week. You deserve all the happiness in the entire world.