This is not a phrase I use, this "best buddies." Nor is it one I've really heard the girls use much. Which is part of why it was especially heart breaking when Madeline cried this week--in that tragic and whole-hearted way she has--that going to school without her best buddy Meredith next year was going to be the worst of all fates. She cried and she cried and Meredith and I both comforted her with all the rational and true things. None of those compensated, though, for what she felt she was losing: walking in to school everyday with her best buddy and knowing that her best buddy was there.
In the end, Mer spontaneously got a ruler off the desk and measured the distance between their beds. One foot and one half, she said, that's how close we'll be to each other every single night, no matter which school we go to. It didn't exactly comfort Madz (let's be honest, nothing does in those moments) but it did distract her a bit. And then Mer picked up the little sister who is about 5 minutes away from outgrowing her and she rocked her. I love these moments when it suddenly becomes clear that they don't need me. It's enough to see them be just what one another needs.
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