'It's raining, but it's still the beach!"

My cousin, Terry, posted these words on Facebook last week along with a photo of her and a friend smiling under a gray sky with a darker gray Atlantic Ocean in the background.

Both women are wearing scarves and jackets. Their hair is windblown…

Ann Marie and I were not close friends. I didn't walk to school with her. I didn't sit with her at lunch. We didn't talk on the phone every day. We never pinky swore, "We'll always be friends." And we didn't tell each other our every thought and dream. And yet, because we grew up in the same neighborhood, were the same age, and went to the same church and school, we played together many afternoons. Marbles in our dirt driveways. Freeze tag on our front lawns…