My best friend is named Doug. I call him Dougie: have called him that ever since we first met in elementary school many moons ago.

Dougie and I are up in years (he is 74 and I, 64: ten years apart), but we are more like brothers if anything else.  We are both living in a nursing home: our spouses have died and our kids have grown and moved away, but we are still together.  Illness and age will never separate us.  

We love each other too much. 

I came to the nursing home after I lost my legs to complications from diabetes.  Dougie came here after he had a stroke.  He is still unable to move his one side and when he talks, he sounds like he has a mouth full of marbles, but I can still understand Dougie and what he has to say.  He is full of humor and loves to play practical jokes on the other residents (but not in a mean way).

I am grateful that we have been able to maintain our long-standing friendship after all these years.  God must want us to remain together so when we were reunited after years apart (military service, raising our families, our jobs, life itself, etc.).  Now we are together again and when we reunited at the rehab hospital, it was a day of tears, celebration, and pure, unadulterated joy!

It was nothing short of a miracle!

I honestly thought I would never see Dougie again when he went into the Marine Corps (I was in the Army-Air Corps: pre-Air Force) and went our separate ways, but then came the time when we both got sick and ended up in the rehab hospital.  Instant family reunion!!  I was shocked to see how much the stroke had affected my best buddy, but despite the garbled speech and paralyzed leg/arm, I recognized the mischevious sparkle in his brown eyes and the cockeyed grin.  I knew it was my friend; there was no mistaking that crazy smile or those dark eyes.

I am sure Dougie was shocked to see me without legs, but he recognized me by my red hair (now silvered with grey) and my paunchy belly (I was always fat, even as a child).  The hugs, tears, and kisses soon commenced.  Right in front of God and everybody.  We didn't care how foolish we looked to others: all we cared about was that we were together once again!

It was a wonderful moment!

Since we had no place else to go, we were put into the Golden Acres Nursing Facility here in Beaumont, where we live, and we've been together, annoying each other, and spending time together, ever since.

I do know what to get Dougie for Christmas: Old Spice aftershave.  His favorite.  I only hope he got me some macadamia nuts!  I love those things; I can't ever get enough!  (He has gotten me those for the past two years since we've been here.  It's become a Christmas tradition for the two of us.  Something simple, but definitely gifts that we will use and enjoy!)

The best present, though, is this: togetherness and reliving old times and making new memories!  Illness might have threatened to knock us down, but our friendship has only been made stronger and we aren't going back!  We plan on remaining friends as long as we both have breath and life in our bodies!