Remembering Cathy....

Sometimes life as you know it can change in an instant. It catches us off guard and knocks us to our knees. One year ago today, I lost one of my best friends and my boss, Cathy Bird. She was one of a kind. God truly "broke the mold" when He made her. She was larger than life!

This picture was taken a month before she died. It was a great night for New Prospect Elementary. We had just won Palmetto's Finest...a high honor and one we had worked for four years to win! Cathy never gave up. I can remember telling her on the way to Columbia that night..."Bird, if we don't win tonight...that's it...we aren't doing this again." She just looked at me and smiled and said, "Oh, yes we will!"

Cathy had a big heart. She was always giving to others. It was not unusual for me to find little presents in my box almost every day....half the stuff in my house came from her. She would be heartbroken to know Kirkland's has closed...in fact we were laughing the other day and said that was the reason they closed...Cathy was no longer here to shop there! I remember one Valentine's Day, I had a flat tire coming to work. She sent the PE teacher out to my rescue. As my luck would have it, when they went to replace the flat, the tire man tells me I need new tires. Ouch! A single girl's budget just can't take surprises like that sometimes! Although she denied it until the day she died, I got four new tires for $100.00...wonder who paid the rest?? I never doubted Cathy loved me, because she would tell me. "Jules, do you know how much I love you?" I heard it everyday I worked with her. She would call me EARLY on Saturday morning (you know I love early!;) and say, "I just wanted to be the first one to tell you I love you today" just to aggravate me!!! We shared good times and bad times, we laughed and cried together, we supported and loved each other and we talked about the Lord together. The last day I spent with her was the Friday before she died. As always she told me she loved me and she warned me to spend time with my daddy because "you and I aren't promised tomorrow." As I look back, she was absolutely right.

Do I miss her? YES, more than I can say. Am I a better person because she was my friend? Absolutely. Do I know where she is? Organizing the schoolroom of heaven! Will I see her again? You better believe it. What will she say? "Jules, what took you so long?"

Thank you, Lord for allowing Cathy to be my friend and the promise of eternal life...because of it friendships never end.