My Single White Female Ad from 1987

When I was 19 years old, I had nowhere to live. So I was reading the ads in the newspaper and found a single white female ad. I called that number, and little did I know that I would meet one of the best friends I ever had.

I was a secretary by day, making $8 per hour, attending night school three nights a week. She was a 25-year-old college graduate working as a social worker. We had a purely business relationship.

She took on the role of "big sister" and sometimes I called her the "Big Grasshopper." She often referred to John, my then boyfriend, as her third roomate, although he didn't live with us. While we lived together, she met Jerry and one morning I found his "shoes" in our apartment. I guess you could say we had a fourth roomate.

Karen eventually went to live rent free with an old lady, while she went to grad school and finished her master's degree. Both of us got engaged in 1989, and while I married in January 1990, she married in August 1990.

She worked in corporate America as a social worker for a while, and then they had their first son, Scott. I have never seen a prouder mother or more excited woman.

Recently, Scott graduated from high school. He is college bound and going to be an engineer. Personally, I think he's more the salesman type, but I'm just his mother's odd friend. So, who knows. Karen and Jerry went on to have two more children, Julia and Zack.

I believe that Karen and I were put into each other's lives for a reason. She has been my friend in some of the best and worst times of my life.

So today, I thought I'd pay homage to her and her family. Life is good. And I'm so very lucky to know her. Seems funny how a simple newspaper ad can change the course of your life.