Colors are very powerful things – they say a lot about a person. I was recently reminded of this as I worked on a website for an artist client. You see, orange is one of the colors on her site.

Now I have a personal resistance to orange. When I was young I had a best friend Karla and she was born with cystic fibrosis. Karla wore orange. Me, I never liked the color – too loud! I’d much rather wear a soft pink like little girls were supposed to wear.

Karla was different. Not only did she like orange, she wore it in all kinds of ways. She was in fact, one of the first kids I ever saw in bright orange high top Converse sneakers. She usually wore them with Hawaiian print “jams” (long shorts, for those not growing up in the 80’s).

Karla didn’t mind getting noticed. She was authentic through and through. It may have been the fact that she had exceeded her life expectancy by the time she was 12 or it may have been just her personality. I on the other hand had 11 siblings, went to catholic school and blended in with what people expected without question.

Karla went on to further exceed the limitations placed upon her. She graduated high school, then college and even got married. At the time of her wedding, I was 9 months pregnant with my oldest child (Karla Rae). Reminding me that she had worn pink in my wedding, Karla announced her colors would be orange. Can you picture a pumpkin? She took pity on me as maid of honor and settled on a peach colored dress.

Three years after a double lung transplant, at the age of 24, Karla passed away and I took my children to their first funeral. I was not prepared for what greeted me. Karla was surrounded by 100’s of teddy bears (her entire collection) and on the floor beside her were her Converse sneakers.

Though my daughter as namesake was given many treasures that had belonged to my dearest friend, including said collection of bears, her wedding gown and pieces of jewelry, the thing she has kept in her closet since before she could fit into them are those orange hightops.

One of the lessons Karla taught both of us was – wear orange!