6C. Patty's oldest friends (more coming)
From a very old friend, N. B.
Dear Governor Blunt:
Patty Prewitt and I have been friends since sixth grade, when she moved down the road from me. We've stayed overnight with one another, laughed a lot, and explored what she and her family called the "timber" together. I still have some of the silly notes we'd write to each other in Junior High. We country girls were so scared when we went into Lee's Summit Junior High that we used to hold hands on our way to switch classes. We were terrified that we would lose our way. Our Home Ec teacher once commented, "You and Patty belong to a mutual admiration society." After we each married, I'd visit EVERY time I came home to see my parents. We used to visit and watch our kids play together. She and Bill used to have a trampoline in their yard and I remember watching them jumping around in the late afternoon sun. After Patty was convicted and yet before she was brought to prison (her dad got her out on bail for part of a year), her sister, Mary, gave her a teapot and a pair of silk pajamas for Christmas. That gift was so Patty and I could enjoy one more overnight together before she went to prison. We stayed up all night and talked.
Our 47-year friendship has stood the test of time. The silly notes have been replaced by an ongoing correspondence. She has written of her suffering, and also her joys. Her sense of humor is intact. When she laughs, you can still almost see her tonsils. We still hold hands when I come to see her on a special visit. Hers is still skinny and brown, and mine is age- spotted. But we're still hanging on for support. Now we trade Grandma stories. With prison walls between us, we still have a lot in common. Her youngest grandchildren are near the same ages as mine, and we even both have two grandsons with the same names - Jace and Drew. Although our occasional visits are mostly a lot of fun, because we enjoy being together so much, the worst part is me walking out and leaving her in.
I admire Patty. From the Inside, she has still kept the bonds of our friendship strong. She is my support and my champion, and I am hers. If you could meet her, you would know she is a woman of integrity who has suffered far too much. Please commute her sentence and let her come home to spend time with her aging parents, brother and sister, children, grandchildren and friends. We will greet her with open arms. We will make sure she is all right out here.
Thank you for reading this. I hope this doesn't sound presumptuous, but I would be more than happy to meet with you and vouch for the best friend I have ever had the privilege to know.
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