In deciding to honor all our friends and family with ‘sweet hearts’ on Thursday of last week, I was truly excited to read the stories people would share, and secretly feared that noone would share. How can you celebrate the people in our lives who teach, discover, love, support, shield and embrace us, if noone other than me shared a story for the giveaway of this beautiful sweetheart necklace?

I need not have worried, because only a couple of hours after the post hit, I was greeted by an incredibly touching story of friendship by Carrie, who shared the story of her friend Kathy. The story nearly had me in tears by 9 am! The stories continued to flow in over the next few days. A loving relationship between a mother and her daughter, a wonderful relationship between a woman and her cousin, and a beautiful dedication from a wife to her husband. But it didn’t stop there, 3 others shared their unique stories of their ‘sweet heart’ friends, and with each one, I was more and more grateful to be able to peek inside the relationships of each of the people who shared.

As I read these stories, I reflected on my own friendships and just how lucky I too have been throughout my life. Because of this moment of reflection and the joy it brought to me, I am going to announce the winner of this beautiful ‘sweet heart’ necklace and then I am actually going to share the stories of all the people who shared. My hope is that, these stories will warm your heart today and make you think of just one person, if not more, that perhaps you can connect with today to just show them they warm your heart.

I do want to say, I wish I could give necklaces to everyone!  If I could go back and augment my 11 Questions post where I got to answer Sue’s question about what I would do if I won the lottery, I would now also add that I would like to buy necklaces for everyone here. But alas, no winning ticket today so  I can’t do that just yet, which means for today, just one lucky ‘mynewfavoriteday’ friend can win the necklace.

Drum roll please…..

“The mother-child relationship is paradoxical and, in a sense, tragic. It requires the most intense love on the mother’s side, yet this very love must help the child grow away from the mother, and to become fully independent.” ~ Erich Fromm

A big congratulations to Sandra.  Your story is so lovely and I will be thinking of you and MaryAnn as you both get ready for her to go out into the world to become fully independent.  Your love and everything you have given her will stay with her and even though you may not be together everyday in person, I am sure you will be in her thoughts daily just as she will be in yours. I have to know, will you keep the necklace with your collective initials or will give it to her?  Such a hard choice?!

And, as promised, here are the others stories that so touched my heart, and I hope they will touch yours as well. The first is from Carrie at http://tempolifecoaching.com

I recommend getting some tissues:

A lovely story from Emily about her cousin Dorothy, love and friendship knows no borders:

This tribute is from a wife to her husband. I happen to be lucky enough to interact with this lovely lady in the bloggy space and it’s so wonderful that they are together as her hubby is salt of the earth and as she says, together they are AMAZING.

A story from Shari about her bestie L.  I love her description of her friendship and the bond they have developed over 25 years! Beautiful.

Our next story is from Veronica about her love for her friend Donna aka Donna Momma.  You can feel in your heart the sweetness in her words.

One of my favorite ladies in this bloggy-sphere is Renee’ who I will be featuring here tomorrow.  But for today, I am so touched to see her story of her BFF as I can see how it all unfolding and I LOVE their friendship.

And last but definitely not least, a lovely blogger who I really enjoy and I am delighted she has shared her special friendship with us.  The last few sentences of her description touch my heart.  I am so happy you have one another.

I hope y’all enjoyed reading about these relationships as much as I did.  To see and feel the true respect and love within each of these stories warms my heart and definitely helps make today ‘mynewfavoriteday.’  Are any of you feeling inspired to reach out to a loved one or friend?  I hope so and I hope this inspiration makes today ‘yournewfavoriteday.’