Your attention, please. Flight one-ten, nonstop service to Phoenix, will begin boarding in five minutes.\u201d My best friends, Laura and Kathy, and I looked at each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s us,\u201d Laura said. Kathy and I nodded, but none of us could bring ourselves to get up from our seats by the gate. I\u2019d hoped this trip to Phoenix with \u201cthe Girls\u201d would lift our spirits, but now I wondered if we\u2019d be better off just staying home. Something was missing. Someone.<\/p>\n
Brandi.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019d been the four directions on a compass, she would\u2019ve been our true north. She was the glue of our group. The nurturer. The one who kept tabs on everyone. B\u2013that\u2019s what we called her\u2013made sure we had the best time together.<\/p>\n
It had been five years since we lost B to breast cancer, and things still felt off. Like they\u2019d lost their meaning without her.<\/p>\n
We\u2019d met more than 20 years earlier, when we were working as admissions counselors for competing colleges across Iowa and Nebraska. One recruiting fair took place in a high school gym so small our booths were practically on top of each other.<\/p>\n
Maybe it was the close quarters, but Kathy, Laura, Brandi and I bonded right away. We were all fresh out of college and had lots to talk about.<\/p>\n
That season we kept running into each other on the college-fair circuit. We\u2019d grab lunch together, making jokes about the rivalries between our schools. Soon we were hanging out on weekends too. We were more than just colleagues\u2013we were friends for life, the Girls.<\/p>\n
One by one, though, we moved on with our careers. We settled in different places around the country and met our husbands. I stayed in Iowa, Laura moved to Missouri, Kathy to Ohio, and B all the way out to California.<\/p>\n
But we always made time for the Girls. We joked that it was written into our wedding vows: Our hubbies had to grant us two trips per year.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s go to England!\u201d we said one year. Then it was Canada and Mexico. Once we had kids, we chose destinations a little closer to home: Kansas City, Missouri; Defiance, Ohio; and Des Moines, Iowa.<\/p>\n
I kept the scrapbook of our trips\u2013we\u2019d done more than 25 of them\u2013with photos and notes about our sometimes luxurious, usually frugal travel habits.<\/p>\n
The first thing we did when we heard about B\u2019s diagnosis was visit her. Kathy, Laura and I flew out to California and did everything in our power to support her. B fought hard, trying every treatment available, but after five years we had what we all knew would be our last meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want you all to keep going on trips,\u201d B said. \u201cOur friendship is forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
If only that were true. By then Kathy and Laura had moved back to Iowa to raise their families, so getting together was easier, but take away any one of us and the group just wasn\u2019t the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlight one-ten to Phoenix is now boarding!\u201d the announcement blared. I looked at Kathy and Laura and tried to think of something to break the gloom that had settled over us.<\/p>\n
I noticed Kathy\u2019s shoes\u2013soft brown suede, simple yet elegant. \u201cNice shoes, Kathy,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks,\u201d Kathy said. She crossed her legs. \u201cI got them at\u2013\u201d<\/p>\n
What was that? There was something on the sole of her shoe. Something colorful. A piece of gum? A candy wrapper?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s on the bottom of your shoe, Kathy?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
She swiveled her foot and peeled something off. A yellow sticker. She went to crumple it up, then froze. She turned the sticker in her hand so Laura and I could see what was on it.<\/p>\n
A single character. The letter B.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your attention, please. Flight one-ten, nonstop service to Phoenix, will begin boarding in five minutes.\u201d My best friends, Laura and Kathy, and I looked at each other. \u201cThat\u2019s us,\u201d Laura said. Kathy and I nodded, but none of us could bring ourselves to get up from our seats by the gate. I\u2019d hoped this trip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[229],"tags":[170,156,51,165,72,153],"ppma_author":[1449],"class_list":["post-19559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friends","tag-angel-sightings","tag-death","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-life-after-death","tag-stories-of-faith","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n