Patti and I had our first encounter in September, 1957 at the school lunch table. She sat beside me and boasted how she could eat a piece of her paper lunch bag. I then sat in awe as she ripped off a large piece and popped it into her mouth, chewed and swallowed. Hey, I was six, I was impressionable! It was from that moment, we became the best of friends.
We sat together on the school bus every morning, called each other almost every night and visited one another very frequently; as we only lived two blocks from each other.
Even when Patti went on to a different high school (which I was deeply disappointed and really tried to convince my mother to send me to the same one as Patti) we remained close as ever.
We shared every secret, screamed like loons over the Beatles, Beach Boys, Dave Clark 5 and The Monkees, went to Saturday dances, laughed and cried over boyfriends and breakups.
Every afternoon, after school, we'd get together over her house to watch Dark Shadows and even started our own fan club.
As I mentioned on the first page, Patti loved the Wizard of Oz! She would make us pretend we were the characters. She'd make me play the scarecrow; the straw headed one who longed for a brain! Did I mention she was my best friend? And, of course, surprise, surprise, she was our lovely, sweet, Dorothy!
Up until our early twenties, we'd often have people stop and ask if we were twins! This gave our warped, teenage minds the idea to dress identical! I said we were warped! We were maids of honor in one another's weddings, and, even rented our first houses as married couples next door to one another for close to a year.
Situations made us drift apart, but we always managed to find our way back to each other and pick up as though time never passed between us.
The day her husband told me of her passing was devastating. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. All I did was rock and sob, calling her name over and over again!
Patti may have gone ahead over the rainbow, but the unique bond and connection that we shared in life could never be broken in death. She's as much of my heart now as she was in life!
