………………..As I am waiting for the smoke to clear from the Canadian fires, and I find myself confined to my house i have been reminiscing about stories my Mom told me……….My Mom saved many pictures of her and her girlfriends…..these are just a very few. Her friends meant everything to her, and I remember two of them very well. Even though we weren’t related I always new them as Aunt Nardi and Aunt Sadie…..Only when I was older did I realize we weren’t really related….I even called their husbands Uncle Armond [Nardi’s husband] and Uncle Bubby [Sadie’s husband]…….In the photo bottom left photo of the girls on a country road my Mom is at the front left of the picture and Nardi is standing behind her…..Sadie is in the front on the right in the bias plaid top. The other bottom pictures are of my Mom with Aunt Nardi…..In the bathing suit picture my Mom is at the extreme left and Aunt Nardi is second in from the right…….One of my FAVORITE pictures of my mom is of her laying on the grass. She’s in front, Sadie is in the back and another friend Vannie is in the middle……MY MOM’S SMILE IS EVERYTHING!!!! The girls were as they say thick as thieves, and always got together and went on vacations every summer leaving the guys behind…..I don’t think any of them had marriage on their minds until my Aunt Nardi married my Uncle Armond. My mother was her Maid of Honor….Then they started to fall like dominos……Then my mother got married and Aunt Nardi and Uncle Armond were their Matron of Honor and Best Man…..The tight knit group was breaking up, and soon all of them were getting married……When my parents moved from Brooklyn to Long Island my Mom left her girl friends behind….that was very hard for her and them…..Children came , and their lives became complicated…..,so different from their carefree days as young women…..My Mom saw less and less of them……For my parents 50th wedding anniversary my brother Mauro and I sent my parents for 10 days to Hawaii…..Aunt Nardi and Uncle Armond went with them. I know my Mom was the happiest I has seen her in a long time to be spending time with her BFF and closest confident Aunt Nardi…….Tragically, Aunt Nardi had found out she had cancer before the trip, but she insisted on going even though she wasn’t feeling well…..My Mom happily took care of her , and made sure she had a good time… She passed away a few months after their return……..When my Mom was in her 90s she asked me “Lou, why am I still here, all of my girlfriend are gone”. How do you answer a question like that? I understood her perfectly…….I could only reply….”Mom you still have us, your grandchildren and Dad”……..but it just wasn’t the same…..The friendships and memories of the best years of her life were very dear to her……Now, as I get older so many of my friends are gone, and Jac is gone……I know how she felt…………….Sometimes it’s worse to be the last one standing.