Something happened this week between me and Valentine that has placed him closer to the top of my best male friend list. If he were my boyfriend, there's no doubt he'd be at the top, but he's not so he's still being judged by the other friends.
Last Saturday I received the news that my youth matron from church had passed. This woman meant so much to me because of all the things she taught me not only about Christ but also about life. In her final weeks I would visit her at the hospital or home and I mentioned this to Valentine. He was impressed with her impact on my life and even bought her a card telling her this. When I shared the news that she died and told him when the services were scheduled he told me he had the day off and he wanted to come with me.
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Honestly, I was cynical because I've had other guys promise things before realizing the weight of the promise, so I didn't tell many people. I kept it to myself and even gave him more than one chance to renege on his promise. He didn't. In fact, he kept saying he was going to spend his entire day with me.
So on Thursday morning he accompanied me to the memorial service. I introduced him to some but not all of my favorite people including my pastor's wife. She of course, made a comment about him being my "man" but I tried to make sure she knew we were friends. Apparently, no one else is buying that excuse but us.
I planned to take him to one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurants after but it was closed so instead we went to lunch with my entire family at Cracker Barrel- a first for him.
He'd mentioned that his little brother had a track meet so I offered for us to attend it but instead he wanted to rest before hitting the gym. As we all know, I never resist a nap so I slept on the couch after convincing him that he should sleep in his bed and that I'd be fine.
An hour later he was determined to hit the gym although I tried to make him stay since he'd developed a cough and was sneezing. My vote apparently didn't count. Once we arrived he kept looking for my parents because he and my dad had discussed coming around 6 pm and he wanted to keep his word. What we didn't know was that my father on the other hand had fallen asleep and would not make it that night.
As we left his place to venture to the gym, I got in my car and he in his so I knew we'd part ways after the gym. Boy, was I wrong. As we walked in the parking lot he asked what we were eating for dinner and suggested his favorite Chinese place. We got there pretty close to closing so we were able to order the house special rice.
After we were both clean and refreshed from our separate showers, I sat on the couch while he prepared our plates. We prayed, ate and then spent the next few hours reading the book "Revelations from Heaven" aloud to each other and discussing the book as well as the eulogy from the memorial.
Before I knew it, it was 1 am and time for me to go home. I couldn't believe I'd spent more than 12 hours with him and could have gone on for hours. I know some people that I've hung out with that I could only stand for about 2 hours.
I was sure to tell him how blessed I felt to have him in my life as a friend and to thank him for helping me through the day. It could have been much harder on me if he weren't there to get me through and I am so grateful for his actions.
To me, he went above and beyond the call of friendship and I will never forget what that meant to me.
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