the value of friendship.

I have been blessed with good friends in my life and wish to take this opportunity to say goodbye to one of the best, Ricki Wummel. Ricki lost her battle with cancer on June 11, 2001. She was greatly loved and will be sorely missed.
Ricki and I met when she approached me across the bushes dividing our properties. She felt it necessary to inform me that our dog, Brutus had impregnated her dog. I was quick to inform her that Brutus, who she mistakenly always called Bruno, had been tied up on his dog run and her dog was the hussy.
We laughed. I apologized and told her that we would get Brutus neutered immediately, but unfortunately it would not change the current situation.
After that first meeting, we often met across the bushes as she let me know how her dog was progressing in the pregnancy. When the puppies were born, we went to see them. They were cute and cuddly but the mother dog was hostile so we kept our distance until they were older. My girls, would go over to see the puppies, hold them and play with them in the thick, green grass in Ricki's front yard.
It was sad that we could not keep one of the puppies, but with four cats and Brutus, it would have been irresponsible. Ricki also had two dogs and a cat, so her keeping one of the puppies was also impossible. So our families were equally disappointed when all the puppies were adopted out. And although it meant we no longer had any reason to continue our talks and meetings, we did. And our friendship flourished.
When her finances and health deteriorated, she was forced to move into a smaller house with less property to maintain. It was a difficult decision and one that she often said she regretted because she missed us as neighbors. We had to try harder to keep in touch once she moved away from the neighborhood. Through emails we would arrange to meet for breakfast at least once every 3 or 4 weeks.
She shared her concerns about her children, her job, her health and her finances. I was able to make her burdens seem lighter and she did the same for me. She enjoyed watching my girls grow and kept track of my son as she watched them change from youngsters to young adults. She had older boys so she was consoling when I became frustrated with choices my children were making.
Ricki taught at Rockford Chrisitian Academy and attended church faithfully. She wore her religion like a badge of honor. She was not ashamed to let others know of her beliefs. She knew God and loved him. She knew the importance of living one's religion, not just professing it. Although she and I were not of the same faith, she never put down my beliefs and was quite impressed by the structure, organization and love in the LDS Church.
Ricki lived an exemplary Christian life. She loved and shared with others. She prayed for others as well as herself. In all the time that I had been blessed to know her, her biggest concern involved her boys accepting the gospel and living the Christian lifestyle.
Good friends are those who make you a better person for having known them. Ricki was one of those friends. I am honored to have had her in my life. This article is a tribute to her - until we meet again....

a short story about a true friendship

Fiona Famous was a very popular girl at school. She was clever and fun, and got on well with everyone. It was no accident that Fiona was so popular. From an early age she had made an effort to be kind and friendly to everyone. She invited the whole class to her birthday party, and from time to time she would give presents to everybody. She was such a busy girl, with so many friends, that she hardly got a chance to spend time with individual friends. However, she felt very lucky; no other girl had so many friends at school and in the neighbourhood.
But everything changed on National Friendship Day. On that day, at school, everyone was having a great time, drawing, painting, giving gifts. That day in class everyone had to make three presents to give to their three best friends. Fiona enjoyed the task of choosing three from amongst all the dozens of her friends.
However, when all the presents had been made and shared out among classmates, Fiona was the only one who had not received a present! She felt terrible, and spent hours crying. How could it be possible? So much effort to make so many friends, and in the end no one saw her as their best friend? Everyone came and tried to console her for a while. But each one only stayed for a short time before leaving.
This was exactly what Fiona had done so many times to others.
She realised that she was a good companion and acquaintance, but she had not been a true friend to anyone. She had tried not to argue with anyone, she had tried to pay attention to everyone, but now she had found out that that was not enough to create true friendship.
When she got home that night , created quite a puddle with her tears, and Fiona asked her mother where she could find true friends.
"Fiona, my dear," answered her mother, "you cannot buy friends with a smile or a few good words. If you really want true friends, you will have to give them real time and affection. For a true friend you must always be available, in good times and bad".
"But I want to be everybody's friend! I need to share my time among everyone!", Fiona protested.
"My dear, you're a lovely girl," said her mother, "but you can't be a close friend to everybody. There just isn't enough time to be available for everyone, so it's only possible to have a few true friends. The others will by playmates or acquaintances, but they won't be close friends".
Hearing this, Fiona decided to change her ways so that she could finally have some true friends. That night, in bed, she thought about what she could do to get them.
She thought about her mother. Her mother was always willing to help her, she put up with all of Fiona's dislikes and problems, she always forgave her, she loved her a great deal...
That was what makes friends!
And Fiona smiled from ear to ear, realising that she already had the best friend anyone could ever want.

AKHIRNYA

akhirnya gw udh bisa buat blog ini thanks my friends rayhan n asipaaa