Happy Birthday, Gail!

Many years ago, my parents sent me to a Summer Camp called Briarwood, which focused on our Episcopal Church.

Briarwood was once an enormous estate that was donated to the Episcopal Church. The Church used it as a summer camp for teens.

So there I was, at the age of 13, feeling a bit lost and very nervous. I met two girls during that time, and we became friends. One girl was the type who would be voted most likely to succeed at anything. Worst of all, she knew it.

The other girl, the one that has been with me ever since, was, like me, just trying to find our way.

Gail and I are in the middle of the second row. Back then, Gail was a brunette, and I was a badly bleached blond.

After camp, Gail and I began to write to each other—long letters full of teen angst and news of our latest boyfriends. Back then, phone calls were expensive, so they were pretty much out of the question. Occasionally, my grandmother would have extra minutes on her old landline, and she would allow me to use the phone for exactly three minutes. Her motto was, “If you can’t say it in three minutes, write a letter!”

Through thick and thin, Gail and I have remained as close as sisters all these years.

You can see that as we grew up, she became the blond and I became the brunette!

Today is Gail’s Birthday! And I wanted to take this moment to wish her the happiest birthday ever!