The Forever Angel and the Silver Heart

I have written about my dearest friend Cynthia several times. I am so incredibly blessed with this friendship. Cynthia is beautiful, brilliant, articulate, educated, sweet and funny. And I cherish her.

One of our favorite things to do is shop together. One day we were driving back from the store when Cynthia told me a little story.

"When I was in college," she began, "I had a lovely friend. She had beautiful long blonde hair and a beautiful face and I was so happy to have her as a friend."

"We did everything together, just like you and I do. "she continued.

"One day, this girl gave me a gift. It was a silver heart filled with candy kisses and it touched me so deeply. And that was the last time I ever saw her. She simply. without a word, disappeared. I have often wondered if she were an angel. I really believe she might have been an angel."

Cynthia glanced over at me.

"Beej, you remind me of her in every way. You look like her, you sound like her and you're sweet the way she was."

I can't tell you how touched I was. I mean, that's a whole lot of compliments paid there. I decided right then, when Christmas rolled around, I was going to duplicate that gift.

I found a lovely silver heart candy dish (actually it was a little jewelry box but I used it as a candy dish..) I filled it with chocolate kisses and wrapped it up in pretty paper and a red bow. I added a card and wrote on the inside,
"To my forever angel from your forever angel; Merry Christmas."

I gave it to my lovely friend who opened the card first, silently read it, and opened the box. She gasped.

"You aren't going to believe this." she could barely speak, and the words came out as a whisper.

"I never told you this. How did you know? How did you know about my angel?"

"Cynthia, you did tell me. A long time ago."

"No, I didn't, Beej! No I did not!"

She slowly looked up at me.

"Are you her??" she asked.

"No Cynthia." I was beginning to feel bad that I wasnt her. "But you really did tell me about her. and I wanted you to know, that not all angels disappear. Some angels disappear, but not all of them. Some angels are in our life for the duration."

She thought about this for a few minutes as she studied the heart.

"Beej?"
"yeah?"
'You are a keeper."
"Yup. I know."

And I gave her a big hug.