My Best Friend Went to Heaven

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During the 6th grade in Lutheran Elementary School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York I met two girls, one was Leslie and one was Arlene. We became the closest of friends and even went through high school together. It is my friend Leslie who died this morning but even though I am sad I am also glad for her. She had an amazing life. Her father was best friends with Jack Cassidy, who happened to be the father of later teen idol David Cassidy. Because the friends got together often she and David, whom she called by his second name Bruce became close friends. When he became famous her parents did not want her to follow him to California and get caught up in all the rock and roll and idol frenzy. She met a guy named Nick and married him. Nick was in the military and she wound up a military wife. They had three boys and where Nick went from base to base she followed with the family. Somewhere through the years she and Nick lost their closeness and then Bruce found her again. At this time the boys were grown and Nick had retired from the military and they had settled in Florida. Bruce had a house in Florida at that time too. Unable, to deny the closeness they had for one another she had a relationship with Bruce for the last fourteen years of his life. When he passed it was the hardest thing for her but she decided that she had to return to Nick and her boys. They all accepted her back and somewhere in all the turmoil, I caught up with her by email from Latvia. We started to keep close contact. When Martin died and I wrote I was now alone she immediately let me know that the apartment above theirs in a two-story house was empty. That is how I decided where I would go when I returned to the US. For the first couple of years, we were able to enjoy catching up and watching videos, and talking about the days that had gone by. But then she started declining both physically and mentally. The doctors said it was mostly all in her mind but in a way, I knew once she lost Bruce she also lost a lot of things that meant much to her besides her sons. Slowly she deteriorated and for the past two years she would send me up messages but I never got to see her. She was in a world of her own and her husband and sons took care of her. Slowly it got so bad that she could hardly speak, or eat, and became bedridden. Yet, in her bedeviled mind she wanted to remain at home and not in some institution. Nick knew the moment someone would take her out of her house that would be the end right there. This morning he told me she had passed on to the world beyond. And even though I will miss her terribly I know she will be in touch with me in some way, I know she is now unburdened, and I also know that she is happy with her loved ones up above. Nick and the boys are grieving but the one who will be hit the hardest is her younger sister Kelly because she lives with her husband in the West of the US and she always wanted her sister to come to her. She blamed everything on Nick so I am saddened that this one hardship will still be placed on his shoulders. She and I called each other kiddo and so after I heard I sat down and looked up and said, “Kiddo, I am sorry you are gone, but I also know you are now truly happy, let me know how you are doing, and who you have met up above. My mom’s apartment in Brooklyn became “teen central” for me and my friends. We listened to music, we laughed, and we danced. This is a photo of my friend Leslie dancing with my mother. That is how I like to remember her.