How does one say goodbye to a lifelong companion? Or for that matter how can we possible go on with life alone? Of course, we do. But it is not life as we knew it. Pearly and I were together from the first grade at Emerson grade school in Great Falls. The first time I noticed her I only saw her peeking out. After a few shy peeks she came forward and I liked her right away. We shared all the usual childhood adventures. With her I learned to whistle and we won several bubble gum contests. The Montana State Fair was our favorite place and we gobbled carmel apples, cotton candy and sweet corn-on-the-cob between rodeos and carnivals. We were nearly separated when I was knocked unconscious while riding a yearling steer in a rodeo. We were even together for the holidays. On Halloween I filled a pillowcase with treats and we ate them until the Christmas stockings with peppermint candy canes arrived. Those were fun times.

When we entered high school there were new things to experience. Lipstick and French kissing! We graduated, married and had children. She was there through the jaw clenching pushes when the children came and when some of them died through the years she shared my lip biting grief.

We were just past forty when her health began to fail. I was there during the surgery and though she never fully recovered she didn't look frail or old until the last year. I noticed her color was kinda grey and she didn't have the shine of her youth. She no longer stood straight and I feared she would need assistance from her neighbors to even get up each day.

Then the infection took over and pain became a constant companion. I made the decision to pull the life support and Pearly died on the 15th of November,2004.

I am left with a painful gap that I doubt will ever heal completely. Others tell me I will eventually fill the empty hole with a different companion. But I know there can never be another in my life like my pearly front tooth.

February is national Children's Dental Health Month. Today is the time for children to get a head start on a lifetime of health teeth and gums.