This is a lovely story and what made me smile the most while reading is how effusively you love your friend! So glad you got to deliver your gift in person - I agree that this is much more satisfying when you can see the person's reaction. Thanks for raising my spirits with your story!
I'm really glad that you enjoyed this story and your spirits were lifted by it! I was very much attached to my grandmother, unlike no other person in the world. When she died, it destroyed me on the inside and it took a lot of strength just to keep moving forward.
This lady really makes me think of her and I get emotional every time I'm around her. Right before I left her house, I asked her if I could take a picture with her. I was getting choked up just by asking the question for crying out loud. You can see in the photo with the two if us in it that my eyes are teared up. It was rather embarassing but she understands.
Tears are a good thing in my book of life and so is love. I think that one of the main purposes to our lives is to feel as much as possible. The more we feel, the deeper our experience of everything is, so cheers to tears or whatever evidence comes forth from the courage to feel - the bad, the good and the ugly, all of it!
I've always felt sorry that I didn't know either of my sets of grandparents very well. My parents are immigrants so all extended family was across an ocean, and they all died before I was old enough to have chosen to really get to know them. For me friends of all ages have become this extended family and I'm thankful for the richness of these relationships in my life.