Michele

This is my good friend Michele, another one of my girls I had to leave behind in South Carolina. She and I also worked together, for almost eight years. For many of those years, our cubicles were within shouting distance, and shout we did. Michele was the friend I could cut up with the most, be raunchy with, say all the good cuss words to, and Michele is the one who always had the best gossip and kept me in the loop. Nothing was off limits in our conversations, and she was the friend I knew I couldn't offend no matter how gross or disgusting I was, or angry or upset I was with the world. She is a wonderful wife and mother, one who is fiercely in love with her husband and just as passionate about her two sons. She was a fantastic listener, and even if I was ranting on and on and on, she never interrupted and took in every single word, always giving great advice when I was done, and always calming me down when I would get my blood boiling. I would like to think I did the same for her. She is all about home, family, friendship. We talked about fashion, hairstyles, weight loss, money, sex, how much we hated a certain creepy pervert in our office. Michele was a few years younger than me, but in certain ways a whole lot wiser. She and her husband had married as teens, she was mother to a teen and a soon-to-be one, and she'd worked there at the company for years before I came so she knew the low-down on everything and everyone. The one word I can use to describe Michele is FUN, and if I came to work in a bad mood or feeling discouraged, she was the one to put the smile back on my face.

I miss Michele, although we email and talk on the phone, but it's not the same as running to her desk and crouching down for her to whisper to me the latest dish about someone in the office. (photos of Michele and her husband Cecil, and Michele and her/my old boss Tammy)