Sweet Little Girlfriends...

'Sweet little girlfriends, you and me...'

From the early ages of two, three and four, my little sister, Irene, was one of the most delightfully friendly and vivacious little girls you could ever meet. She had no sense of being shy and was an immediate friend to every little person she played with. Sometimes a butterfly will sit on a bush – and attract hundreds of butterflies to the same bush. This was like Irene. Wherever she was playing, her carefree laughter and cheerful countenance always brought around a host of other little children to play beside her.

I remember helping Mother plan Irene’s 6th birthday party. It was going to be her first ‘friend’ party and she was very excited knowing that there would be games and treats with all her little friends actually coming to our home.

Once the party started, and most of the expected guests already arrived, the doorbell kept ringing over and over again.  Mother would ask Kristi and I to stay with the crowd of girls and keep things calm while she answered the door, but the doorbell kept ringing…and more little girls kept arriving.

Mother was expecting 10-14 little girls, but the count was already over 25 and growing!  Every time a few more children arrived Mom would ask if we knew their names or recognized their faces. We didn't and neither did she.  These little girls were complete strangers to us, had no parents escorting them, but knew Irene by name.  In fact, she squealed with delight to see them - and would call them by name when she greeted them!  Final count for guests at this party was 72 little girls ranging in age from about four to seven or eight.

Once the party was over and the guests were gone, Mother questioned Irene about where her whirlwind of friends came from. We were about to learn something extraordinary!  Irene had been so-o-o excited about getting to have her first ‘friend’ party, that she had not just invited the little girls in her school and church classes, but several times in the past week she had walked with her little neighborhood friends up 1600 South into the newly built subdivision at the top of the hill.  She invited all the little girls she met up there while they were out in their yards playing hopscotch or jump rope. There were more than 50 new homes in that new subdivision - just 5 or so blocks from our house!

Mother was in shock knowing that her golden-haired little darling had left our immediate neighborhood several times in the past few weeks - without any of us knowing where she was. She had walked with other little girls from around our house to find new friends to invite to her party. Mother deduced that the children from up the street had probably come down from their own homes and yards without their Mother’s permission and without those mothers even knowing where their daughters had wandered off to. 

Mother was beside herself thinking of the potential danger more than 60 little girls had put themselves into without even being aware of their own wrong doing when all little Irene was thinking of probably went something like this...

                                                    'sweet little girl friends, you and me…

                                                               we found another…
                                                                         and then there were three…
                                                                                   we started our group…
                                                                                             our circle of friends…
                                                                                                       and that dear little circle…
                                                                                                                 never, ever must end.'