A Friendship in Ten Movements
The world lost a good one this month, when, at the age of 62, Jeff Draine went home to the God he loved after eleven years living and dying with Alzheimer’s. (You can read his beautiful obituary here.) Jeff was the first friend I made as a full-blown adult. After college graduation, I moved into the Freedom House community in Richmond VA, where Jeff and I overlapped for just a week. He left briefly to run a local day care center but soon returned, moving into the bedroom next to mine. (Our headboards each backed up to a connecting door, upon which I frequently pounded when Jeff’s thunderous snoring awoke me. “I dreamed the house was falling down again,” he would say.)
Neither of us would have suspected, in those early days, that we would be friends forever—let alone family—and we certainly never envisioned that I’d be one of the last people to kiss that big head of his before he died. But there you have it. We wound up walking together for thirty-eight years, all the way to the end of his road. Here then, in honor of Jeff, is a “top ten” list of sorts: ten movements that capture our ever-shifting relationship. I hope this chronicle of how one friendship endured and evolved over time will speak to your own uncategorizable loves. Cherish them!
Continue reading “Walking Toward Love”
Christine Marie Eberle 