Courtesy of Tim Thornhill

United and reunited, from left: James Black, Bryan Stephenson, Tim Thornhill and Alva Coleman.

Eric Thornhill, Tim's son, with Patrick Kamau.

I wanted to tell you about my best friend, but that's a problem because I have three of them!

As my life has gone through three main phases a different friend has really stepped up each time and been there for me. I wish everyone could be so lucky.

I was blessed with a great childhood, and Bryan Stephenson and I were best friends as kids. We met in 1963 when I was four years old. Growing up as a kid in the '60s and '70s in Roanoke was great. The snows were deeper and it seemed like we went sleighriding all winter. TV was simpler-- black and white and 3 channels -- we never missed our favorite shows, Batman, ScoobyDoo and Star Trek.

Being a kid was easier, too. You got on your bike and were gone all day. We would get on the Blue Ridge Parkway and ride from Starkey to Floyd County. Sleeping outside in a tent, star-gazing. Taking the bus downtown for a hot dog and a trip to the Flying Eagle coin shop. We traded baseball cards when baseball was really great, before free agents and money ruined it. Aaron, Mays, Rose, Clemente. ...

We played baseball every day with wooden bats that never lasted long and baseballs we found in the tall grass around the school fences.There was Wiffle Ball and basketball at Bobby and Billy Hick's house, now Cave Spring basketball coaches.

Seemed like their dad worked for a baseball card company. Topps? That was cool. For some reason, they called Billy "Nip."

Then before we turned 18, Bryan and I were taking Amtrak to Cincinnati to watch the Big Red Machine -- Rose, Bench, Morgan. Just the two of us walking around in the big city and taking in Riverfront Stadium baseball heroes. And of course what kid back then didn't love Lakeside amusement park in Salem? Sadly those days are gone now, but I'm glad I have the memories. And Bryan to re-live it with over lunch. At the Roanoke Weiner Stand, of course.

In school though, Bryan wasn't in my classes, and over the years James Black became my best school friend. We graduated from Cave Spring in 1977 and went off to Virginia Tech together in the late '70s. Yeah, we even hung out at the Blacksburg discos at times, I hate to admit. Times sure were different We celebrated all day when Tech beat William and Mary on the final play of a game -- Jimmy Sharpe days.

James was in engineering and I was pre-med, but he talked us both into switching into pharmacy. That was one life-changer that worked out great. Off to MCV in Richmond we went for pharmacy school. Another was that he had a part in me meeting my future wife, Renee, who was also there in pharmacy school. James was diagnosed iwth cancer in 1983, but was in my wedding that year despite a total loss of hair and not being at full strength. Bryan was in the wedding, too. James made a full recovery and is now married and a father of two young kids. We still see each other, but not enough.

Work led to routines, and Bryan and James and I didn't see each other as much but were still in contact. After my wife and I had two kids (Shannon and Eric), we eventually began going to church. But it wasn't until I met Alva Coleman at Colonial Avenue Baptist that I really became a committed Christian. My best Christian friend really had a positive effect on me. Though 11 years younger than me, no one has been a better example of a father, husband and Christian than Alva. He inspired me to co-teach a children's class and that led to more and more involvement at church. Though at first he didn't go, he inspired me to go on yearly mission trips, the greatest of which was to Kenya in 2003.

I went with my daughter and other youth and the youth minister, Melissa Scott. It really changed my life and made me want to serve God and others more than ever. I now go on a mission trip every year. Seven years after first meeting, Alva and I still co-teach and have begun achieving our goal of seeing a game at every Major League Baseball park.

In 2004 we had tickets to see Game 6 of the World Series in Boston. Turns out the series ended after Game 4, so we got our money back. But I decided at that point to take that sum of money I just saved and send a Kenyan boy to college. I met Patrick Kamau on our mission trip to Kenya and he came and stayed with us following a summer camp job in the U.S.. He didn't have the money for college, and without it there are no jobs in Kenya. He has turned out to be a leader in many ways in Kenya and in the U.S. at several summer camps leading worship and is doing great at the university in Nairobi. It seemed like God had a plan for this boy and used Alva and myself to help achieve it -- thanks to a Red Sox sweep of the Series. We can't wait to see the impact he will have after he graduates next year.

Alva and I also fish, hike and play softball with other guys at church. He began going on mission trips with me as well, and the bond keeps getting stronger.

I don't know anyone as lucky as I am who has three best friends who have all managed to affect their lives in great but different ways. What a birthday dinner I had in recent years when all of us were together at once for the first time. We have all stayed in the area and think the Roanoke vicinity has been a great place to live and raise families.