Women are Fantastic Friday #1

When I saw this new meme on MarillaAnne's blog, I immediately loved it.  At forty years old, my life is made up of some incredible women, if for no other reason, because they put up with me .  No, really, they are just all good people who have touched my life in one way or another.

Ever since deciding to partake in this Friday meme, I have been pondering who to use as my very first fantastic woman and though you are all wonderful, if I named all of you in the first Friday, it would be a short lived meme!  But honestly, one person stood out amongst the rest right now at being so utterly fantastic and that would have to be my oldest friend in the world, Robyn.



Robyn and I met when I was a freshman in high school and she was in the 8th grade and her older sister, Cathy, was who introduced us.  Cathy was a junior when I started high school and we met because we were both into drama club.  It didn't take too long for my friendship with Cathy to transfer to her younger sister, Robyn and before too long we were relatively inseperable.  We both loved theater, writing, Days of our Lives and music.  We wrote together, had sleepovers at each other's houses ("Robyn, where is your other sock?"  This was her mama at like 7:00 in the morning after we had been up talking all night.  That sock being in the laundry was a life or death situation), bicycled all over the place until I got my driver's license and a car.

Our friendship took many twists and turns, from me moving to New York, to Robyn going away to college...and going away to college....and moving to Baltimore to go to more college, but we remained close through nearly all of it.  I only say nearly, because we did have a spat or two, but they always blew over.  Our lives took different directions once again when I met the Brit and got married and Robyn was right beside me on the beach as my maid of honor. 

We have seen each other through moves, loves found and lost, the deaths of parents and numerous twists and turns in the road.  Now, these are all reasons why Robyn is fantastic, but not the reasons why I chose her as my very first Women are Fantastic meme.  The reason I chose her is because she is probably the bravest person I know.

Robyn has been in a battle with cancer for the last year and a half and has remained upbeat, optimistic and has never lost sight of her faith.  She has been through surgery, both to get the tumors and to reconstruct, has battle scars that she deserves to wear like trophies just to show the world how hard she has fought, has dealt with a feeding tube and a trach.  Through all of it, she never quit smiling or laughing and though I know that there were moments where she had to feel positively terrified, she never gave into the fear; she never let it rule her, destroy her or take her hope.  I personally think that if it had been me going through this, I would have drowned in the terror I'd of felt, but Robyn never waivered. 

She is currently in remission and waiting for test results to come back.  The doctor warned her in advance about the possibility of a "false positive" in her PET scan because of the healing that is still occuring and he doesn't want to see her until March 12th.  Though the doctor doesn't appear to be too terribly concerned, I know it has to be worrying Robyn.  But she's brave, and oh so strong and I know that no matter what happens, she will rise above it, trusting in God and smiling.

Robyn, I don't always know the words to say to express my amazement at your attitude in the face of so much, but just know that I love you and that you are incredibly brave...not to mention fantastic.