A close family friend moved away today--across the world to Missourri--and she's not the first friend I've lost to that state. But anyway. She is in her 70's and one of the coolest ladies I know. Eccentric in all the right  ways and someone I aspire to be like should I hang around the planet long enough.  She collects unusual earrings and has hundreds of pairs...her late husband used to buy them for her...and great hats that she would sport on Sunday mornings at church. She was asking me yesterday how old I was when she met me. She told me she'd been in Bakersfield 29 years, but hadn't met our family until the second year she was here, so 28 years ago. That made me 10. I remember her being at all the important events in my family's lives. My siblings adoption parties, our weddings, my parent's 40th anniversary party. She was more like family than a friend. But like so many people we love, we think they will be around forever. I even lived around the corner from her for a couple years and always thought, "I should stop by" but never did. More often than not I ran into her in the grocery store, or at Taco Bell. But she crossed my mind more than my path and she has left an eternal imprint on my heart. She will be missed--but she is closer to her daughter and grandson now and that's a good thing.