Our best friends make us better. Have you noticed? I can't be petty around Ash. Any adversity that comes her way, she says it helps define what's important. Lots of stuff has happened over the years. Lots of it is good stuff. Some of it is rotten. Well. In my opinion. Not in Ashley's.

If you're a Brit, then you should know that my American girlhood friend is one of your national spokespeople for Motor Neurone Disease (ALS back home). Last year she was featured all over the London Tube in huge billboards--an effort to get lifts in all the stations so that people in wheelchairs can use the Tube. Sometimes she hangs out with Princess Anne (my grandmother's favorite young royal--she's horsey), who is a Patron of the MND association.

So when I say how good it felt to wrestle my luggage onto a train, and hope I was in the right place when I first arrived in Portsmouth, maybe you can understand, just a little, how my little heart sang when I saw Ash waiting for me! She is dauntless on her scooter.

She's astonishing. I love her. I miss her already.