When We Were 19, My Best Friend and I Promised That If We Were Both Single at 60, We’d Find Each Other – I Turned 60 Last Tuesday, & My Old Landline Rang

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Jeffrey and I became best friends when we were 17. Not boyfriend and girlfriend. Just Jeffrey and Ruth.

He dated other girls. I went out with other boys. I even went to prom with someone else, though my best friend ended up driving me there

Then, 40 minutes earlier, my childhood landline had rung. Now I was about to see him again.

I pushed open the door. Jeffrey lay in the hospital bed. He was thinner than the boy I remembered. His hair had gone white. His face had changed.

But he was still Jeffrey.

He was thinner.

His eyes found mine.