Michael W Smith Said it Best

When I was 9 years old we lived about a block from the city limits of our small town. One day I walked towards the "country" and saw a boy named John playing at the corner house. He had just moved in from Oregon. Turns out we shared a love of all sports and we grew to be fast friends. His dad was a banker and got transferred away for a couple of years, but the family moved back to town in time for us to spend our last 3 years of high school together. We played basketball together--he was a varsity starter, I got cut my senior year--baseball together--I replaced him as the center fielder when he blew out his ankle our senior year, went to the same church. He loved music and had a beautiful voice. I supplied the lyrics when he forgot them. Today we would be called BFFs.
After high school he went to Pasadena College (now Point Loma Nazarene) and I went on an academic scholarship to USC. I was miserable, so through his efforts at "selling" me to the baseball coach, I transferred to Pasadena and played 3 years of baseball, met my wife-to-be, and formed other lifelong friendships. I also became friends with his 3 other brothers, rooming with his younger brother Terry my senior year before getting married to Jan in the middle of the year. Brother Tom sang at our wedding and John and Terry stood up for us. One of my most poignant memories of that time was when John sat down in my room and plaintively said, "I hear you guys are getting married." The realization our relationship was going to have a dramatic change was unsettling for him.
John and Terry moved to the Northwest after college and Tom settled in Central California. John is a community college administrator, Terry has his own law practice and Tom is now Superintendent of Schools in King City on the central coast of California. So we rarely see each other.
But the last few days have been one of thos serendipitous (sp?) moments when we return to the "thrilling days of yesteryear." It has become a tradition for the brothers to come down for the PAC-10 basketball tournament, and since we moved to Huntington Beach they stay with us for the 4 days of the tournament. We went golfing Friday and Saturday, basketball Wednesday through Saturday, and it was very apparent that if we lived in the same area we would be as inseparable as always.
We buy seats in the upper level because they are cheaper and then use all sorts of trickery to wind up in seats we didn't pay for. This year I was the lucky guy because on Friday I ran into a "kid" I coached in 79-81 and he had two extra seats on the floor which he gave to John and I. When UCLA lost he felt he had no reason to come back and gave us those 4 choice seats for the championship game between USC (one of my alma maters) and Arizona State (Terry is a grad of ASU law school). Terry left after the game to be with his wife, son and grandkids in San Diego. Tom drove back to King City with his wife who had flown down to ride back with him. John and I had Saturday evening to ourselves (Jan was at a wedding in Arizona), went to dinner at El Ranchito in downtown HB, watched a little basketball, and then I dropped him off at LAX on Sunday morning.
There was so much more to those 3 days that involved all of the little "triggers" that only lifelong friends care about. There was laughter, arguing (just the brothers of course), reminiscing, and remembering childhood friends that are no longer with us.
I've said for many years that one of the best things about heaven will be no more goodbyes. I was thinking about that after John gave me a quick hug and headed to the check-in counter. And I drove home humming, "Friends are friends forever......"