We started our lives with 2 very strong pre-existing conditions: my mom and Cathy's parents (my Aunt Pat and Uncle Bill) were close high school friends and we lived next door to each other since soon after I was born.  Yeah, I know I may not have been Cathy's ideal playmate-- I was a few years younger and actually closer to her brother Billy's age. But from my perspective, she was grown up and fun and smart and I just wanted to play with her! Play Barbies, play dolls, play school, have tea parties, share and fight over our toys, ride our tricycles. What more could an only child like me want: a big girl right next door to be my friend! A few years later, the Jones' family moved. My mom and I were sad.  Cathy (later to be Catherine) and I took different journeys. We'd leave our families. But our families would stand by us. We'd make and lose friends. And we'd make some friends for life. We experimented and discovered and learned and lost and won, all in the journey of who we would become. Different paths, with few crossovers. But still, she was my first friend.