The Very Best of Friends

Donna Barclay has just been chosen to host the Fall Festival - and she wants nothing to do with it. Her friend Jessie, who entered her name to cheer her up, can't understand why, so she turns to Whit for help. The truth comes out: almost a year ago Donna's best friend Karen died of cancer, and Donna has buried her grief so deep she has never once visited the grave. While Jimmy and Oscar turn Romeo and Juliet into a backstage comedy for the festival, Whit drives a blindfolded Donna to the cemetery, where she finally admits she's angry - at Karen, at God, at herself - and takes her first steps toward letting go. At the festival, Donna steps up with a reading of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," dedicated to Karen, to her new friends... and to the very best friend of all.

Found on On Thin Ice Album 07 · 14 episodes

The run See every episode

0089 That's Not Fair! Three kids fed up with parents, siblings, and teachers agree to Whit's experiment: for a few days, everyone will treat them absolutely fairly - no more, no less.

0090 But, You Promised A small four-second fib to a friend snowballs until Robyn finds herself in a police station, staring at two strangers her imagination put there.

0091 A Mission for Jimmy Reluctantly stuck running his Sunday school's missionary fundraiser, Jimmy Barclay falls asleep over a missionary's memoir and gets a firsthand lesson in what mission work really costs.

0092 The Ill-Gotten Deed When Calvin storms into Whit's End looking for revenge on his cheating brother, Whit hands him a book he wrote himself - the true story of identical twins racing across the country to claim their father's mysterious inheritance.

0093 Rescue from Manatugo Point A mysterious two-word letter from England sends Whit back to his old wartime journals - and the story of a dangerous night mission off the coast of Guadalcanal.

0094 Operation Digout A mysterious English stranger leaves Whit a cryptic message - "Operation Digout" - summoning him to Trickle Lake and stirring memories of a wartime mission he thought long buried.

0095 The Very Best of Friends A well-meaning surprise from her best friend forces Donna to face a hurt she's spent a whole year refusing to feel.

0096 The Reluctant Rival When a violin prodigy from California visits her grandfather Whit for the holidays, an invitation to join Odyssey's children's Christmas orchestra strikes a sour note with a local girl who has waited all year for her moment in the spotlight.

0097 Monty's Christmas A family Christmas at Grandpa Whit's house begins to unravel when a shattered ornament exposes the hurt a boy has been carrying since his parents' divorce.

0098 The Visitors On Christmas morning, the Barclays' holiday is upended when a mysterious young family with a baby turns up sheltering in their backyard shed.

0099 The Barclay Ski Vacation A family ski vacation takes an unexpected turn for George Barclay when his twelve-year-old daughter - who didn't even want to come - suddenly discovers a reason to love the slopes.

0100 Ice Fishing A boy tired of living in his talented little sister's shadow joins an ice fishing trip hoping to finally prove himself by landing the lake's legendary uncatchable fish.

0101 Scattered Seeds When Connie despairs of ever writing stories like Whit's, he walks her back through her chaotic first attempt at directing a play to show her that great stories have been happening to her all along.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 1 more roles

1 supporting role

Reginald Duffield Parley Baer

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Phil Lollar Writer · Director Dave Arnold Sound Designer · Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

After school at Odyssey Elementary, Jessie Morales leads her blindfolded friend Donna Barclay down the hall to the bulletin board, where classmates wait with congratulations: Donna has been chosen to host the annual Fall Festival. Jessie has entered Donna's name herself, hoping the honor will cheer up a friend who has been acting strange lately. Instead of celebrating, Donna refuses flat out. She wants nothing to do with the festival, not this year or any other, and she heads home, leaving Jessie baffled.

Jessie brings the trouble to John Whittaker at his ice cream shop, where he has been showing his English friend Reginald Duffield around and practicing how to brew him a proper cup of tea. Whit assures Jessie that Donna is not mad at her; something else is wrong. Leaving Reggie to mind the shop, the two drive to the Barclay house and find Donna out back, feeding a cat named Ferguson and telling him it might be safer never to get too close to anyone, because people go away. When Whit presses her, Donna's calm cracks: nobody cared what she wanted, she says - not even God - and she demands to be left alone. Jessie is stung, but Whit explains that Donna is not talking about her. She means someone she knew before Jessie came to town: a girl named Karen.

Over tea, Whit tells Reggie the story. Almost exactly a year ago Karen developed cancer in her leg, and though everyone hoped she would recover after the amputation, the disease had spread too far and she died a few weeks later. One of the last things Karen did was take part in the Fall Festival, which is why the invitation hit Donna so hard. Donna has dealt with the loss by refusing to deal with it at all; she has not visited Karen's grave even once. Reggie, quoting his old commander at Guadalcanal, prescribes a confrontation: when all else fails, attack straight on.

Meanwhile Donna's brother Jimmy and his friend Oscar Peterson, assigned a Shakespeare scene for the festival, have talked Duffield, who is from England, into coaching them through Romeo and Juliet. Rehearsals sour when Jimmy discovers that Juliet is a girl and he has to play her, until Duffield trades serious Shakespeare for a lighter touch and lets the boys play it for laughs.

Whit blindfolds Donna, her second blindfold that week, and drives her to the cemetery, telling her on the way about his son Jerry, who once hid every math assignment in his desk and learned the hard way that ignoring a problem does not solve it. At the cemetery Whit refuses to offer sympathy and names what Donna has been hiding: anger. At Karen for getting sick and leaving her, at God for letting it happen, and at herself for feeling that way. Donna admits all of it. Feelings are only reactions, Whit tells her; it is all right to have them as long as she does not let them control her, and the way through is to give them to God. Donna walks to the grave alone - she has a whole year of catching up to do - and Whit, whose son now rests in the same place as Karen, admits he has some catching up to do too.

At the festival, while Jimmy's comic Juliet plays out on stage, Donna appears backstage, apologizes for the way she has been acting, and asks for a moment in the program. Borrowing an idea from Karen at last year's festival, she reads the words of a hymn that begins "What a friend we have in Jesus," dedicating it to Karen, her old best friend; to Jessie and Mr. Whittaker, her new best friends; and most of all to the very best friend she has.