I felt the need to share my sense of what a specific word actually means. The word is "friend," and I felt that it was imperative that I share my feelings with the people who have read my articles.

For several years my daughter has suffered with a disease that she has attempted to find a doctor to help her get rid of. She has gone from doctor to doctor but for some unknown reason, nothing has surfaced that has provided the solution that offered a cure.

Yesterday was a difficult day. I wasn't feeling well myself, and at the tender age of eighty four, all one can do is to struggle with the product of age. 

I have been blessed with a neighbor who is my daughter's age and has been by my side as I struggled to cope with my inability to do anything bur pray that my daughter might find an answer to her dilemma.  

I've attempted to help by writing a poem for her every day that might provide the courage she needs to go on fighting to find the solution that continues to elude her. Unfortunately, although well received, the poems have become only the way for me to try to help her.

When one has to face a situation like this, they discover that at such times, a friend who cares and is there helping you to face the situation is a mystical gift from God.  

As I have written before, my husband and I had no choice but to move, as our apartment suffered a terrible electrical fire that destroyed almost everything I owned. While I waited licking my wounds at the motel provided by our insurance company, my husband went looking for another place for us to live.

Fortunately, it didn't take him too long to find a new place, and it appeared that the apartment he found would be a decent place for us to make a new home. We were able to move into the apartment he had found with the few items we had salvaged from the fire.

Finding a new home offered hope for the future, and so we took our retrieved belongings and moved them into the new apartment he had found for us and our dog. All of our old friends from the place we had been forced to leave appeared to go on with their lives.  

After moving to the new apartment he found, I was fortunate to meet a young woman who lived not far from where we did.  Ironically, she is my daughter's age and has been by my side since we met. To say that I am grateful for her friendship would be a weak statement to make.

Yesterday when the call from my daughter turned up to upset my life, this young woman was visiting. As I have been struggling with the issues of old age, she has been at my side offering help. This is my way of saying thank you.