Il Paradiso

BIGGER version of this page can be seen here:
http://public.fotki.com/ebworld/personal-photos/scrap-pages/misc-years/angelfriends.html

I was doing this Winni scrap tutorial and I randomly picked the word art 'Friends are like Angels' and I was supposed to add a photo underneath. I was thinking of what photo to add when I got a phone call from a friend of mine and she was crying because her daughter, who has EB like my son, is not doing well, and she was so upset I started crying. When I got off the phone I started thinking of my friends that are not "like" Angels, but ARE Angels. I've moved a lot during my life and in consequence I've had very few people that I've truly considered 'best' friends. Two of those best friends died in 2004.

My friend Paola was someone I went to school with and worked with in Italy. We were best pals and wrote letters upon letters over the years. She went through infertility treatments and after many years she finally had her baby girl in late 2001. In late 2002 she was diagnosed with brain cancer and died on February 29th, 2004. Her family told me she was in a LOT of pain in the end. To say her death upset me... well, this does not describe exactly how I felt. While it's true that we had grown apart over the years, she always signified something important in my life. I am very sad to know her daughter, whom she wanted to much, will grow up without her mother.

My friend Darren on the other hand, I met at work in 1992. We worked together for about a year and he made a tremendous difference in my life. Even though he moved back east we kept in touch quite a bit. It was truly a big blow when he found out he was HIV positive. His partner did not make it through the summer, but he did live for a decade after his diagnose. I will forever miss him.