Edythe

 Edythe was my other best teenage friend.  We usually got together at her house. Her mother was a beautiful woman with very long red hair who would give us a smile and drift off to another room to play the piano.  Edythe’s brother was a creep.  He was only a few years older, and he wore a suit!  He would never join us, but I knew he was outside the door listening.  I got the feeling that Edythe was the one who made sure the house ran smoothly.

My mother gossiped about Edythe’s father.  “He has an unsavory reputation.  He is a dentist who advertises and runs an assembly like practice.”  Edythe was her father’s gal.  She was poised for success.

I went off to college and Edythe went off to “finishing school.”  She “married well” and settled in Virginia.  I wasn’t completely surprised when years later she ran as the Democratic candidate for the Senate from Virginia.  She lost to John Warner (the one who was married to Elizabeth Taylor).

I needed to be around Edythe’s confidence and determination.  She never let me down.