Missy was one of the first friends-of-a-friend that I met through Suzie – and as such one of the friends whom I’ve known the longest after Suzie. I still remember traipsing through the attic in the Ko’s grand Victorian home as Missy was over for one holiday or birthday that found us there. By 1989, we’d survived all of Suzie’s birthday parties together and were in most of the same classes. The three of us, along with Suzie’s mom, my Mom, and my brother – were taking a trip to New York to see a Broadway show.
The winter of our 8th grade year found us all of thirteen years old, and as we sat down to a performance of ‘Jerome Robbins’ Broadway’ starring some actor named Jason Alexander, I felt like one of the coolest kids in the world, in the way that only a couple of really good friends who truly appreciate your company can make you feel. On the cusp of young adulthood, we were still kids at heart, and at one point of participatory audience clapping, I remember losing myself in uncontrollable laughter – the joyous mirth of life that would be a happy hallmark of my friendship with Missy.
Now, all these years later, I remembered that NY weekend. As we sat down in the Citizen Opera house to see ‘Some Like It Hot’ with her two sons, the youngest of whom was just about the same age as we were when we saw that Broadway show some 37 years ago, and the lights went down, I recalled and marveled with gratitude that our friendship had survived, that we were still in each others’ lives, that some things could last in this ever-uncertain world.
