The Best Christmas Card Ever

I got the absolute best Christmas card in the mail yesterday. It came from an old friend with whom I’ve renewed our friendship this year. (Did that come out right?) A little background…

My friend and I dated in the 8th and 9th grade, so about 16 years ago. We broke up and didn’t talk for months and then in the summer I went to visit his mom and sister. He called me a few days later, we buried the hatchet and have been friends ever since. I moved away from San Antonio that year, but would stop by his house when I was in town. Fast forward to about 6 years ago…? He ended himself in jail and we became pen pals. Eventually we stopped writing, life gets you busy and you just keep putting things off. He gets out of jail and his wife and I email a few times a year. In ’06 he found himself in jail again. We again became pen pals and again it found itself on the back burner. He is still in today, and we started writing again in April of this year. (This is what I do, I drift in and out of his life) This year he’s had some personal issues with his wife, he’s been moved to a different unit hours away from his family and wife and kids. So he’s alone basically in his life right now. I do understand he is responsible for the events that put him in jail, but he is still my friend and I believe him to be a good person. So for the last 8 months or so, it has been him and me in life. I try to write to bring some sunshine into his life, when there is very little of it on a daily basis. I know I love to receive real mail, I can only imagine his circumstances. I’ve told him before that I’ve known him too long to kiss his ass, so I tell him like it is. (This is where you imagine me shaking my finger at him, giving him the 3rd degree) He’s a beautiful writer, just his everyday language or the songs or poems he passes onto me, and has a strong faith in God that he writes to me about as well. While I don’t share his religious beliefs, he does spark in interest in me to find something for me to believe in, something bigger than everyday life. So it’s not just me keeping him company, he has most definitely affected my life as well.

So I get a Christmas card from him yesterday and what he wrote had me tearing up. He basically said that I’ve held his hand through some hard times and how much that has meant to him and how he can’t wait until he’s out (granted parole in ’09) and we can see each other and just hang out and catch up face to face. We have already started to plan what we want to do. J What he doesn’t realize is he’s helped me also. He constantly reminds me that he prays for me and my family, he brightens my day when I get a letter from him, and as I have no friends here in NM, he is my friend that I am in constant contact with. My friends mean the world to me so it makes me so happy that I can affect one of them in any way.

Merry Christmas card to me!