"Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion." Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

My friend Yvette recently lost her job around the same time I volunteered to be terminated. She read my blog about my last day at The Morning Call being quiet and uneventful, with no retirement party, cake or gold watch to go out with. Last Sunday she showed up at my door with a fully cooked dinner of her Puerto Rican specialties, a beautiful chocolate retirement cake and a new gold watch in a gift bag. She said she wanted to make sure I had those things since I'd been forced into early retirement and had in effect given them up. That is a true friend. She forgot all about her own problems in wanting to help me with mine. I can never thank her enough.

Her visit reminded me of the importance of having friends.  It’s like the lesson Jimmy Stewart learns at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life: his guardian angel sends him a message in a book saying “no man is a failure who has friends.”  Friends keep me from falling into that black pit of despair, they share my happiest moments and hold my hand when I can’t get out of bed.  I don’t have a boatload of good friends, but the ones I do have are pearls of great price and I thank God for them.