Tribute to Stephanie

Last week my life long friend, Stephanie, passed away unexpectedly. Although we had lost touch over the last few years, she is a big thread in the fabric of my life. Our dads were childhood friends and so Steph and I first met by kicking at each other from inside our mothers' wombs. She was born one month before me. Our families lived close by for years. I have pictures of the two of us and our siblings splashing around in wading pools and dressed in costume to act out the Christmas nativity.
They moved to Lincoln the day we moved to Omaha and so we traveled in caravan, taking turns riding together and riding in the big yellow moving vans with our dads. I remember making chocolate milkshakes with vanilla ice cream, milk, and Nestle chocolate milk mix. We also loved making cookies and eating a good portion of the dough!
Her family moved to Idaho Falls shortly before us and I was so excited to have a friend waiting for me when we arrived! She accompanied me to the mall on my 12th birthday to get my ears pierced, a major right of passage! We would walk to the gas station near her house to fill up mugs with soda and buy candy. We even went trick-or-treating together the last year we were considered young enough to go. I dressed as a cave woman.
I also remember being in her kitchen listening to the radio and requesting "I Swear" over and over again. We were such love-sick pre-teen girls!
Steph graduated high school a semester early and moved to Salt Lake. My friend Dorothy and I came to visit her one day. We envied her being out on her own, in her own apartment and everything! We ate dinner at TGIFs before Dorothy and I headed home.
Life took us our separate ways after that, seeing each other only at wedding receptions and similar occasions.
Steph had a contagious giggle. Her beautiful eyes lit up when she smiled. She had a very caring heart and was a deep thinker. She was a great friend and I regret that so many years went by before we began to reconnect.
Steph, thanks for all the warm, sweet memories! You will be missed!
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