Bob has been one of my best friends since we met during our first year of college in 1972.  When I moved to Chicago after we graduated, where he is from, we became even closer.  We married within a year of each other, took vacations together, moved to the same suburb, and our first borns are less than a year apart. Then in 1982 I moved back to New York.

 
We have stayed in touch regularly over the years but visited each other mostly for family mitzvahs or funerals. I am in Denver now for his son's wedding. Last year he came east for my mother's funeral and then my son's wedding. Before that was his father's funeral.

 
Two years ago I had a scheduled event in Chicago and planned with Bob's wife Alice to surprise him at their birthday dinner.  That was a good one. 

Now our parents are all gone.  The kids bat or bar mitzvahs long gone, and only one unmarried child.  We will have to be more deliberate in planing to see each other.  Still it has been great all these years to share life's ups and downs with my good friend, despite the distance.