You'll Always Be My Best Friend

Friday, August 16, 2013

Tonight I would like to acknowledge firstly that I don't normally blog on Friday nights because I'm normally at youth. However, due to a wrist/forearm injury that happened last week, I can't be there. Also, it is making things like writing a bit painful, so this one has been a bit slow in progress (not that you'd notice because you're not watching me type this).

Anywho, I need to get on with the point to this particular blog. In four days, on Tuesday August 20th, my best friend of the last three years, Kathleen Ann Walton-Roy, leaves Perth for England. She may or may not tell me off for using her full name here, but either way she loves me and I know she'll get past it. That's a risk I'm willing to take. I'd like to use this blog as a public notice of her greatness and let you all know why I consider her to be my best friend.

We met in June of 2010 in a young adult small group meeting in a friend's apartment in Perth. I can't remember what I said but I must have said something good that night because as soon as the night formally ended, she came up to me, gave me a rather tight hug and said, "I NEED to have a coffee with you sometime soon, please!" Well, the smart thing to do in that situation is say yes. We exchanged phone numbers and so began our friendship. Now, I'm not going to go over every detail of what's happened between then and now because some of it is too personal and some of it will just bore you, so I'll just stick to what I think are the most important details for you.

Over the next few months, we got to know each other rather quickly. Then, life would give me the biggest punch I thought I could ever deal with. On November 10, 2010 at 8:28 am, I got a phone call stating that one of the most inspirational people I've ever known and the one person I could relate to on a medical level, Zoe Johnston, had passed away from the effects of cystic fibrosis. It absolutely smashed me physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually. Seriously, I even questioned my faith in God in the aftermath of that. However, one thing that was constant during that time was my friendship with Kathy. She was consistently there with phone calls, messages of encouragement, hugs, prayers and all those great things one needs when one loses someone significant like that.

Like any close friendship that's been around for a while, we have had our share of disagreements. Again, I'm not going into detail, but just proving that our friendship isn't out of a Hollywood movie, and that it's not perfect. However, at the end of the day, the fact is the positives have FAR outweighed the negatives and when you can look at someone and despite having seen their worst, still remember exactly why you love them, you need to hang on to that person because you've got them for life. Seriously, I just can't let her go. Oh, how I have tried in the past, but I just can't. God just will not let me!

There is a theory that some people are in your life for a reason, some for a season and a few for a lifetime. I believe I've found a lifetime friend in Kathy. She's one of the more selfless people on the planet that I know, will stop to help a stranger and she even contacted me from as far as New Zealand while I was in hospital (several times) just to be sure I was okay. Now that is nothing short of amazing! There was one time she even cancelled her day's plans just to take me to hospital and she sat there with me the whole day as well.

She brings out the best in me, encourages me to become all that God has destined for me and as I've made mention, is there for me even during the hardest of times. She's also got the patience to get to the bottom of the barrel and find out the deepest part of an issue. Where some people will just take something at face-value, she will discuss it until it's resolved. Now that just shows the heart of the woman right there!

She's got the most amazing sense of humour and is one of those people who can even make me smile when everything inside of me just wants to cry or scream. I've had the honour of watching her go through some huge personal growth over the past three years as well as she's matured into an amazing, beautiful woman with a seriously great singing voice. Seriously, if you haven't heard it, do yourself a favour and buy her music when she makes an album someday, in the hopefully not too distant future. You know it will be the business, quite literally! It's also been great more recently being able to serve alongside her in youth leadership at Metro Church. If you had asked me a year ago if that would happen, I would have questioned what drug you were on. Not because she doesn't have the heart, but because I thought with her lifestyle (one of those people who just doesn't stop until life forces her to) I figured she'd be too busy to give up her Friday nights for that. However, she's been doing it and has given a really solid effort as well from all reports. I'm a bit disappointed I missed her final night at youth last week with my wrist but from all reports, it was fantastic.

There is nothing I can't talk about with her from the most immature stuff on the internet to deep personal and world issues. I know that being in England is going to be tough for the closeness of our friendship and things will change with us a bit, such as the amount of communication. However, I am totally certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that what she is doing is definitely following the calling of God upon her life for greatness and I wouldn't want anything less for her. She deserves God's best and she's chasing it with all her strength, so I say go, give it your all and share your amazingness with the rest of the world. As much as I'd love to keep her in Perth, this city is simply too small for someone with such a big heart and musical talent as Kathy's. She needs to go, spread her wings and fly into everything God has for her. But for goodness sake, I hope she does come back someday, at least for a holiday, because she's one person who I really would risk life and limb to get on a plane and fly halfway round the world just to find.

In closing, I promise that even from Oxford, England, Kathy will be the first to know when I'm in hospital, about any girl issues I'm facing or about how I'm dominating life. I will miss you and I love you more than I can find the words to state right now. Go with God, keep him first in all that you do and be all that you're called to be in this life and don't settle for second-best! :)

Love,

Perry.