Thirty years of friendship

It was thirty years ago this weekend that I met my sister-in-law Kim Church. She has been one of my best friends since that first weekend of my sophomore year in Heritage Halls at BYU. Kim arrived at college (it was her freshman year) via bus from South Carolina, with her friend Eva, wearing white overalls, a pink shirt, and earth shoes. Kim and Eva were quite the anomaly since the majority of BYU students were from the west. Kim was the oldest of eight and her youngest brother was ten months old; I was very intrigued by her large family and looked forward to meeting them some day. My younger brother John met Kim that weekend too and he has had a special friendship with Kim also. I remember Kim and I would talk for hours and I distinctly remember thinking "we are going to be friends forever". I introduced Kim to my brother Robes after he returned from his mission (believe me, their BYU romance didn't happen like you'd expect---here's one clue: Robes used to introduce Kim as "my sister's friend"). I was excited for Robes to meet one of my best friends. I can't believe it's been thirty years since we met. Kim is still one of my very best friends.

Note: This picture was taken the night of a Preference (girls' choice) dance that year. Kim and I didn't have dates, but we dressed in my Grandmother Pitchforth's dresses and sang to her roommate and her date.