Katrina, The Gulf Coast & A Mint Julep Not To Forget

friday, april 25th, 2008

I’m an only child but I have never longed for siblings, as I’ve been fortunate enough in my life to have met incredible women who have always managed to fill any void a longing for a sister might create. Some of my friendships stretch back to kindergarten and my friend Rochelle and I are always proud to say (in unison) to anyone who asks how long we’ve known each other, “We’ve been friends since preschool." It is a gift to be sure and I will never take for granted how blessed I am to have an amazing group of girlfriends in my life.

The friend I’ve known the longest however was, I believe, my friend before we were born. I hold her heart so tightly bound to my own that I am certain we knew each other somewhere else before, or perhaps we just belonged to the same patch of stardust floating around out there in the universe before we arrived here on earth and met each other in the flesh at last. Every time I see her after a long absence, my eyes fill with tears and my heart flutters. My friend has me smitten. I adore her, and I always will.

Our inevitable encounter (for I do believe it was fate) was made easier by the fact that our mothers were best friends from high school and we have therefore known each other since she was one, and I was born. I am certain though that it was not just circumstance that brought us together, it’s impossible to love someone so much just as a matter of logistics and I am therefore sticking with the stardust theory.

It goes without saying then that when I was told at the age of ten that my friend’s family was relocating from Minneapolis to Ocean Springs, Mississippi I was beside myself. Yet even in the midst of my heartbreak, I knew in the deepest, reddest place inside that the strings that bound us together would never slacken or grow weak from the pressure and burden of time and distance. She was my soul sister, and a soul sister is never lost.
READ MORE & GET THE RECIPE