Happy Birthday, Gail!

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

Briarwood had once been an enormous estate that was donated to the Episcopal Church. The Church put it to good use 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 that 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 right in the middle of the second row. Gail was a brunette back then 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 it was 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, then write a letter!”

All these years, through thick and thin Gail and I have remained as close as sisters.

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!