Chris

I met Carol through a moms group, but she wasn't actually my first friend in that group. That distinction went to a woman named Chris.

Chris lived in my neighborhood and had a daughter that was a little bit older than James. After hitting it off in the group, we decided to try a play date. 

That went well, and for the next several years, our kids - she eventually had a second daughter - did all the things together.

Our outings took us all over the Denver metro area and beyond - from parks, museums, reservoirs and botanic gardens to the Zoo and Tiny Town. 

Sometimes we were joined by other members of the group - most notably Carol and Citlalli - but as often as not, it was just Chris, me and our kids. 

2008

Although we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, Chris and I had similar parenting styles. Neither of us were helicopter parents. We wanted our kids to be able to do things without us. We wanted them to experience the world on their own terms.

On one particularly memorable day, we took our kids to a local park after a big rainstorm. There were puddles everywhere, including one right below the biggest and best slide. All the other mothers were keeping their kids away from that area, but when we saw Ryan, James and Brook started edging that way, Chris and I made a conscious decision not to intervene.

We watched as they climbed sneakily onto the jungle gym and laughed as we saw Ryan and Brook decide to send James down first. He went willingly and splashed into the puddle with a shriek of delight. Ryan and Brook followed suit. They did it over and over again and had the best time. Of course, all the other kids wanted to join in, too. Sadly for them, their moms were not having it. There were a lot of dirty looks cast in our direction, and several families packed up and left. Chris and I thought it was hilarious, and congratulated ourselves on our good parenting.

That was a fun day.

2006

Eventually, all our kids - even little Deidra - reached school age. 

2011

By then most of the moms in our group had gone back to work - for me, that was making model horse tack - and except for Carol and me, the group slowly drifted apart.

2013

Still, every few years or so, we'd get together to catch up over a meal. I always sat with Chris, and we always laughed at the memory of that day in the park, our wet, muddy kids and all those angry moms.

2019

The last get-together was in 2023. 

Back in October, Carol sent a message to our rarely used group chat. To all of our surprise and dismay, Chris' daughter Brook responded with the sad news that her mother was battling stage 4 lung cancer. Last week, she let us know that Chris had passed away.

Although Chris spent the last part of her life in Wisconsin and Texas, her funeral was held today in Denver. 

Carol, Citlalli and I gathered one more time to say goodbye to our beautiful friend and pay our respects to her all-grown-up daughters.

Afterwards, we rolled to a favorite restaurant, the home of many Moms and Kids get-togethers and toasted Chris one last time.

Goodbye, my friend. It was an honor to have known you.