Friends From Long Ago and Far Away

I had a best friend when I was little.   Jenny was four years younger than I was and I’ve heard stories about my excitement when she was born in the hospital but I don’t have real memories of my own until she was a few years older and we had become great friends.

The memories of all the things we did and fun we had comes flooding into my mind as I write this.   The time seems long in my mind, but was only six or seven years until her family moved to another city which was a three hour drive away.

Our families kept in touch and we saw each other from time to time and even though we moved on in our lives, she’s still that first best friend I’ll never forget.  

As we arrived in the mountains to visit my parents, my mother told me Joan and John, the parents of my childhood best friend, were in town.  They had Lily, Jenny’s daughter and their granddaughter with them.    The last time I had seen Joan and John them was at Jenny’s wedding.   It’s been enough years that Jenny and her husband have two children, both older than mine.

My mother told me they were on the way over and they had to leave shortly, but they’d stay for a few minutes to catch up.   When they arrived it was like old times.   They looked the same to me: Joan stunning and John handsome.   Their granddaughter, Lily, was a beautiful young lady who reminded me of her mother.

We caught up, told stories, reminisced, laughed and cried.   It was so wonderful to see them.   We have plans to schedule a visit to see them, Jenny and her family in the near future.   It would be a trip to remember.

The Big Boy Update:  My children participated in an art class at the museum in town today.   My son did well and surprised me at the end by wanting to write his name on the back of his drawing.   We worked through each letter one at a time with him asking to do his name in cursive, not print.   The result doesn’t look like his name, but that’s because his letters are of all different sizes.    In the end he was pleased with himself.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  John, my best friend from childhood’s father, and I talked about my daughter’s eye situation.   He said he was so sorry this has happened to her.   He and I both shed a tear together and agreed it was a terrible thing to happen to anyone.   As we talked about the loss of her vision we both watched her happily playing with my mother.   “She’s happy” I heard myself saying, not because it’s an excuse, but because it’s true.   Seeing her happy as she is takes away much of the pain and sorrow for us all I think.