Who are the Best Friends?

We had a reader ask this week, “Who are the Breast Friends, when they are home?” What a great question, something that made us think hard.

Breast Friends are from Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, a town that displays a sign saying The Best Town in the World to Live. There is some science to that statement. In 1996, after the UN declared Canada the best place in the world to live (for the 5th consecutive year), a research company used the same criteria to locate the best province. It was announced that Saskatchewan won. At that time, the provincial CBC radio held a search for the best place in the province to live. Foam Lake won hands down.

Foam Lake is a community of 1200 people. The community offers a wide variety of recreational, cultural, spiritual and social groups for all ages and it provided us with a wonderful environment to raise our families and become close friends.

Some of the Breast Friends grew up in Foam Lake and others came as adults for jobs or with husbands.  We got to know each other well during the years that our kids were in school together, played basketball together, took dance lessons and played hockey together.  We were on boards and on committees and on church and community groups that met often and problem solved together.

So 10 of us joining together to raise some funds was a natural, we had been doing it for years in different venues. That we did it through food and cooking was also a natural, together we have 33 children, 28 children-in-law, 63 grandchildren and 388 years of marital experience.  We had been cooking for a long time and most of us loved it. We celebrate life with food and we deliver food when support is needed.

Individually, the Breast Friends are very different people. We range in age now from 52 to 70 years of age. Some of us work and some are retired and some own their own businesses. We are Catholics, Protestants, Jews and not-sures. Some are married, and unfortunately one is widowed.

We vote differently and stand for different issues.  Some listen to country, some classical, some rock and some enjoy silence. We were born from the heritage of Ukrainians, Germans, Norwegians, Danes, French and many other countries. Some drink wine, some tequila and some diet pop. Some exercise hours every day and some walk from the house to the car… we are very different women.  

In fact, if the Breast Friends went on a camping trip…After a good meal and a bottle of wine, and lots of laughs, we would lay down in our tent for the night and go to sleep. But Cec would have a hot flash and wake some hours later. She would nudge her faithful friends awake. “Look up at the sky and tell me what you see,” she would ask. “I see millions and millions of stars,” Linda would reply. Always challenging us, Cec would question “What does that tell you?” After pondering for a minute, Darlene would reply, “Astronomically, it tells us that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets.” Patti would reply astrologically, “We observe that Saturn is in Leo.” Charlene would logically deduce, “The time is approximately a quarter past three.” Jac would say politically, “Imagine how many satellites are above to provide cell service around the province!” Linda and Anne would say theologically, “We can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant.”  Nat would say meteorologically, “I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.”  And Cec would add, nurturingly, “Tomorrow  is going to be a beautiful day to split and transplant our perennials.” Jeannie and Val would quietly add at the end of the discussion, “Girls, someone has stolen the tent!”

We have had eight wonderful years together because we are such a blend… instead of concentrating on the differences among us we try to appreciate each other’s gifts and what that person brings to the table. We have survived and been successful because we do bring different views; we have analytical thinkers, devil’s advocates, great brainstormers and thank goodness, practical thinkers.Our discussions are often long and loud but never heated. We change our minds and change our policies as we grow as an organization.  We are blessed to have a group of friends that we get to spend time with and focus on a positive mission with.  There is no time for gossip, in fact, there are times that there isn’t even much time to visit and catch up on family news.

Now back to the questions: who are each of us when we are at home? This will take a few weeks to cover, so today the focus will be Linda.

You can read Linda’s bio on our website so I won’t tell you about Linda’s husband and family. Instead I will share what a gift Linda is to our group.  She is one of the most positive, hardworking people ever.  When she commits to a project or a job, she will give it 110% and it will be done immediately and well. Linda is also a social convener. She loves to celebrate life and she loves to have friends and family close by.  She is often the one planning our Christmas get-togethers or inviting us all to her farm for a meal and a visit. When Linda puts her mind to something, it happens. When she struggled with her weight a bit, she was determined to lose the pounds, get fit and get healthy. She did it. She walks miles every day and is always looking for recipes that are tasty but low calorie.

At the business table, Linda is a pusher and a risk-taker.  She encourages us to go a little bigger and try a little harder.  She also shows great attention to detail making her one of our cherished editors that weed out the mistakes and rushing of others. Right now Linda is in Mexico living in her motor-home with husband Bryan.  But Linda is on-line daily tracking our inventory, shipping out book orders and keeping up with the business of Breast Friends. Linda is a great cook and many of the recipes in our books are Linda specialties.  Linda is not only a great BreastFriend, she is a great friend and we all thank our lucky stars that we have her in our lives.          Today she is going to teach us to make apple dip… take a look at the video below.