Three years ago, I moved away from where I had lived all my life & from everyone I knew. Nothing like starting all over at 55......but I have met the most wonderful people I have known in all my life, especially my 92 year old friend.

She is the most amazing person I have ever met. She came to the US from England at the age of 13 with her mother where they lived in Texas while her father was the captain of a ship & was gone most of her life. She still has a twin brother who lives in England. After her mother died of cancer, her father helped her move to KY & ended up buying her the farm she is still living on when she was 30. He left her to make a go of it on her own. She never got married after her father chased away the man she was engaged to.

Her first job (way back in the 1940-50's) was in the mental hospital. How interesting her experiences were & yes, the horror stories from the past are real however, she had a special touch with the patients she was working with. Her special touch came from having had an older sister who had mental illness problems. She went from working in the hospital to working with children with special needs. After that, she worked in the historical society......KY is drenched in history & she helped pull together the history for Shaker village & other historical sites & before computers placed it all on microfilm.

When she got the farm, it didn't have running water, or fencing. On top of the work she was doing, she put the plumbing into the first house, put up the fencing herself, & volunteered in areas including organizing the local humane society. She has a love of the water (guess that was inherited from her father) & she built her own house boat on top of several pontoons.

Since that time, about 30+ years ago, she was able to have a new home built on her farm along with a new barn since the old home was getting eaten up by termites & the old tobacco barn even though still standing, isn't really sturdy enough to safely hold her creatures.

Her ability to make it on her own & to do all the things that she needed to do in order to survive alone, was the most inspiring example that I needed when I moved here alone. The beautiful relationship she has with all of her critters just leaves me speechless. Her love of horses & all God's creatures is amazing to see the bond & how they respond to her. She still has 2 horses, a pony that acts like a puppy dog with her, a llama, & 2 emus along with a dog & 5 cats. She isn't able to ride her any more but having her all her critters really keeps her alive & going.

It is amazing because my friend is older than my mother was when she died 6 years ago, but she seems younger & just more with it than my mother ever seemed to have been all my life. I have such wonderful long talks with my friend. We share our Christian beliefs & have wonderful talks on religion, animals, politics......you name it, she knows about it & is able to discuss everything.

She is a very special friend....not a mother type of friend, but definitely a very close friend that I can share thoughts with & shares thoughts with me.......What wonderful caring love I have found to fill my life with & what a wonderful feeling to be able to be able to give love & feel safe doing it.