Birthday wishes to Jessie James Freeman, March 9, Arlington, son of Elizabeth V. Freeman, of Saxe; Mollie Bet Witsell, March 12, Ferristown; Harold Forest, March 12, Phenix; Kenneth Edmonds, March 13, Drakes Branch; Tammy Bell, March 14, Chase City; Lorette Tharpe, March 14, Charlotte Court House. I wish you a happy birthday and I truly hope that you enjoy it to the fullest. Happy birthday!

Get well wishes to Donna Simpson, of Drakes Branch, and to all of the sick and shut-in. I hope you are well and up soon. You are in our prayers.

Anniversary wishes to Tony and Louise McCargo, March 13, Drakes Branch, 16 years. I wish you many more happy years together with God’s blessings.

Thought for the week: Effective people are not problem-minded, they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems.

Sympathy to all of the families who lost a loved one recently. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you in your time of need. You have our deepest sympathy.

Friendship

You can always tell you have a real friend when you have made a bad choice and they didn’t judge you for it, but talked you through it. Without wearing any mask, we are conscious that we have a special face for each friend.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit. When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who instead of giving advice, solutions or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. The only way to have a friend is to be one. Nothing but heaven, itself, is better than a friend who is really a friend.

News is due by 1 p.m. on Saturday. News can be submitted by calling Virginia Freeman at (434) 568-0596.

Virginia Freeman is a community columnist for The Charlotte Gazette. She can be reached at vstars@pure.net.