I lost my friend today.

Many times I told my husband that the day I lost Gail I knew I would feel broken. It was the understatement of my adult life…

I always joked that when we moved to the mountains my closest girlfriend was over 70.  We chuckled, as did she.  She would have turned 80 next July.  I think, in part, because, despite our age difference of over 24 years we were so much alike. Even more so, I looked to her for spiritual guidance and saw her as the person I would set my personal bar with.  She was gracious, loving, humble, funnier than hell and loved her husband, Jim,  with such an unbounding heart.  And she loved her cats…

Gail and I met through our Catholic parish.  I immediately heard her Cajun roots when she spoke, but, even more so, she was a woman who you could truly watch her heart in action. She would tell me to jump right in even when others told me to sit back and be quiet.  If you know me, you know that made my heart bound for great things!  You knew she loved her husband, because it was written all over the two of them together.  You knew she loved her faith and her duties to the church, because her heart ached when someone did not show for their duties, but a health problem did not allow her to step in.  You knew she loved her kitties!  Oh! We were two peas in a pod!  She would have rescued every little purring soul out there if time and life would have allowed it! She had just opened her heart and home to a foster and her kittens.  Gail and Jim adopted two of them. I knew she was like me, one cat short of an intervention!  And we both loved it!  Most of all,  Gail was a prayer and rosary warrior who always held those who needed it most close to God’s heart.

She had suffered what I guess to be a mild heart attack on Saturday night while we were in Alabama.  We had texted the day before and she wanted to make sure my Jay knew she was praying for his brother.  She was transported to Piedmont Atlanta and had a heart cath.  They said “no stent”. I breathed a sigh of relief and thought “Thank God…”.

I woke up this morning early to make sauce because Gail was coming home from the hospital. It was our intent to make sure they both had a good meal.  Her husband texted me at 9:38 a.m. saying she was waiting on physical therapy and that they expected to send her home.

My phone rang at 3:17 p.m. I expected to hear her husband say they were home…

She had gone home.

God called her to be with him.

Our hearts hurt so badly.  There were so many things we had left to talk about!  I wanted to know so much more about her and how she met Jim.  I wanted to understand more about setting up for Holy Communion because she was so afraid something would go undone because so many people just did not care as much anymore.  I wanted to see the picture of her as a child that she thought we looked alike. We wanted to have them over for braciole. I wanted to know how through everything her faith overruled everything else.  I wanted to spend more time with her because I knew God had placed her in my life.  I knew He wanted a part of Gail to be infused into my heart so I would grow and learn.

He was right.

I lost my friend today.  The Lord gained an angel.