First of all this friend is alive, and simply moving across the country to pursue the next chapter in his life…………so while this may be uncharacteristically nice, perhaps even touching (and by that I don’t mean yourself) it is all part of what made me who I am today.

As a person that creates constant chaos in her life, I hold dear the things that have been constant.  Marty Kamerer, one of my “constants”, is moving across the country.  Now, with technology, texting, cell phones, and airline travel it really won’t be awful, but it is a concept that I have to get used to.  And if a time arises that one of us needs the other it could be a 24-hour thing, not a 24-minute thing.  Sadly patience is not a virtue I have in my repertoire.

So anyway --- my life with Marty in a nutshell!  Marty moved into the house exactly a block over from me in I think, the summer of 1979?? We both lived at 1004.  I rode my bike around the block to check out the new guy – I first saw him in the driveway, and even with the vivid imagination I had at 14 I could never have guessed the adventures that awaited us.  We went to Central High, we were both swimmers, we both belonged to “The Club” and we shared the same twisted, sarcastic sense of humor.  I think we may have waited until we were about 16 to start drinking beer.  Then there were the wild parties, the traveling bar case I borrowed from my parents – we could keep 2 fifth of liquor, 4 glasses and a shot glass in it – we kept it hidden in random places around the neighborhood until the fateful day my little brother and his friends found it and it was never seen again!

So Marty and I liked to party – we still do, although we may have elevated our morals just a smidge.  We got in some trouble – me more than him – he has always been and will always be more charming than I am – and he was frequently at the top of my mother’s favorite child list!! Even after coming home one night a little tipsy, and him dumping the contents of my purse into the snow, while I sat on the step, and he searched for my keys in the snow and the whole while my mother was standing there in the door watching us – he still did not get in trouble – although she did finally open the storm door and yell “You two are a disgrace to the neighborhood”.

We drank underage at Kam’s, we employed the “one for them and one for us” method of bartending when we helped at family parties, we smuggled peppermint schnapps into the concession trailer when we worked at our high school football games, we were booked at The Drake in Chicago as Mrs. Keller and the twins – of course he got the other queen size bed and I had to sleep on a rollaway, we told each other virtually everything and in the last 35 years I remember only getting mad at each other once --- it didn’t last long – like maybe 5 minutes. 

He stood up for me when I got married, he was at my house in an instant the day my husband died, and he never left.  Well finally, he went home to sleep after, cleaning out the fridge, rearranging the cupboards, scrubbing the kitchen floor, arranging all the food, and finishing a puzzle that others were trying to relax and work on.  But he was back the next day.  He is one of the people that makes everything right with my world when it is all going wrong.

He and I have always had other close friends, and traveled among many different packs of friends, but there was never jealousy, just the immediate reconnection every time we are together. We can finish each other’s sentences, we can talk nonstop, or we can sit in complete silence and know what the other one is thinking. He is one of the few people that can tell me how to dress and what time he will pick me up, and I will just be ready and go wherever he takes me.  The trust is unbreakable. We can be brutally honest with each other without hurting each other’s feelings. 

I have a thousand stories – and I have no doubt we will create a thousand more, but right now, I am unbearably sad that he is leaving……………..the only thing that helps is the fact that I already have a plane ticket to go out and see him in a month!

I love you Marty – and will miss you terribly – you have been an unwavering rock for me for 35 years and I expect at least 35 more!!

Love,

Your friend The Gym Bytch