A Better Friend...

I have never been a great friend. I was always pretty self-absorbed. Then I got married and devoted alot of time to that. Next came 6 children in 10 years. More devotion to the family...less for friends.
Then came the autism diagnosis times 5...that took alot of time.
Don't get me wrong, I always have had alot of friends. People who I find different things in common with. None of my friends are alike...all unique. Most of them don't know each other, or don't like each other....but, they all like me (isn't that what counts?).
On April 1, of this year, my best friend died. She had a stroke in the middle of the night and never woke up. She left behind a husband and 4 children (the youngest being autistic). This devastated me...this made me rethink everything.
Then, on July 3, of this year...my very good friend tells me she has ALS. Now, this is a 42 year old mother of a 7 year old son. She has a devoted husband and she is an equally devoted mother and wife.
With this diagnosis, I have decided to become a better friend. Not just with her, but with all my friends.
I want these friends of mine to know I love them and adore them. That I am glad they chose me to be in their lives. That they enough of me and my family to include me in their world.
Friday morning, I woke up and got my children off to school. I headed back home at 8 am and started dough for a Challah bread (my friend Nancy is Jewish and with a sick mother, would not have time to buy one before Yom Kippur). I returned to school at 8:30 am (after getting Caitlin on the bus) to watch Kiernan in the circus-he was the STRONG MAN---very funny By the way.
At 9:30 am I punched down the dough for a second rising. I put up some dishes and laundry.
At 10:30 am I braided and baked the Challah bread.
I delivered the bread to Nancy, by foot, at 11 am.....
I then walked directly over to my friends house, the one with ALS...she was getting a IVIG treatment in home...she had been sick all night.
I sat with her while she received this IV....she got desperately ill and had to be taken to the hospital....
I felt helpless.
What would a good friend do?

I ran, not walked, back to school and talked to the school counselor....it helped.

Yesterday, they let my friend come home ( I cannot name her because of confidentiality-no one but me and another friend knows)...she sounded 1000% better....so good in fact, she has asked me to bake her my oatmeal cookies she loves so much....
I will gladly do this for her....
I would do anything for her...