Saying Goodbye to a Friend

Last night I received an email that Rhonda Frazier, a good friend of mine, had passed away from Alzheimer's disease. She was 34 years old and a single parent of a little boy named Clay. I ask all of you to please remember Clay, Rhonda's parents, sister and brother, and the rest of her friends and family in your prayers.

I met Rhonda at church when I was 7 years old. My family had just moved to Eugene, Oregon, and Rhonda became a very good friend. There were four of us girls that became pretty tight friends and we did a lot together during those 3 years my family lived in Oregon. Those were good times!

When my family moved to Texas, Rhonda and I kept in touch through letters and a very, very occasional telephone call. (And yes, if you know me, you know that Rhonda probably wrote more letters to me than I did to her!) When I was at Harding, Rhonda came and spent almost a week with me. She decided to transfer to Harding the following year, and would you believe that housing assigned us as suitemates even though neither one of us knew anything about it? I still remember Rhonda the look on her face when we found out that we would be suitemates.

Rhonda was an extremely talented person. She lived life fully and completely. She involved herself in everything and was so good at all that she did. Whenever I would think of Rhonda after we moved from Oregon, I would always think of the saying (or Brownie Song) or whatever it is:

Make new friends but keep the old
One is silver and the other gold.

I don't know if my mom used to remind me of this after we moved to make me feel better, or what? All I know, is that Rhonda was pure gold.