I began feeling a dull ache in the base of my left heel. Picture a horseshoe on the bottom of your heel. That's exactly where I felt the ache. After ignoring it for a few months, the pain increased to the point where I needed to see the doctor. He had an MRI done and the result was a large heel spur that was pushing against my tendon. It needed to be removed. He warned me that once the surgery was done, I wouldn't be allowed to walk for about 8 weeks. In order to remove the spur (knows as Haglund's deformity), he'd have to cut the tendon off the bone. That's what take the longest to heal. My husband rented a wheelchair to enable me to move around the house. Leaving the house was more awkward since we have a few steps to master. My friends know that being confined to the house, I'll go stir crazy. Our friends who know my husband know that he doesn't know his way around the kitchen. In order to make things a bit easier for us, they took turns bringing dinners for us to enjoy. Saying “thank you” won't even come close to showing my appreciation. The goodness of people, though, didn't stop there. I belong to a dance group that meets three times weekly with another section (the PC group) that meets in another town weekly. We often interact rehearsing for shows and holiday parades. I have been very blessed to become good friends with most of the PC group. A few days following my surgery, I received a call from one of the women. She asked how I felt and said, “We'd like to come see you. We'll bring pizza. Oh, and tell your husband he's invited to our pizza party.” I was awed. As I said, we are all in the dance group, but they are in the other section and I don't get to see them every week so when they volunteered to bring dinner and spend some time with me, I was beyond thrilled. The women arrived; we all had our share of pizza; we played dominoes. The night flew by and they left laughing. It was quite a night. One I certainly will never forget. While I'm still in the wheelchair, once my foot is healed and I'm back to walking and dancing, my plan is to treat all those wonderful women to lunch. It's the least I can do for friends who went out of their way to keep me company during my recovery. I also intend to make a habit of attending their dance class a few times a month. As of today, September 2, 2019, I am two weeks away from having the cast removed. For a few weeks afterwards, I'll be in a post-surgical boot but at least, I'll be walking. For those who have had any type of extensive foot surgery, you know how I feel and how enthusiastic I am to get my life back to normal. My friends, all of them, will be around to help me celebrate. They are wonderful people on whom I know I can rely. They also made me realize that you can never take friendships for granted. I know, I never will again. There is nothing like friendships.