I was late and I hurried into the beautiful Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Virginia.
As always it was beautful inside the lobby but I didn’t really notice. My eyes scanned the almost empty lobby until I found her.
There she was!
We gave each other the biggest hug. The almost 40 years since we had been together in person melted away.
The excitement charged the air.
It felt like coming home to a precious piece of our past that connected us and others might not understand.
She hadn’t changed a bit and was every bit as beautiful inside and out as I remembered.
Long ago we were young Navy Wives in Corpus Christi, Texas while our husbands trained to get their wings. Our lives were filled with finding jobs, learning the ropes of being a military spouse, exploring this coastal town, surviving Hurricaine Allan and for Nina, helping Paul and I welcome our first child into the world.
We went boating and I remember a boat trip to LBJ lake in Austin Texas and finally getting up on water skis. I took many a fall and a few weeks later found out I was pregnant. No wonder our daughter Sarah loves the water 🙂
There were no cell phones, our TV ( well at least ours) was a tiny Black and White portable. We loved real mail from our loved ones or the occasional phone call.
Life was good. We both left Texas and headed to our new duty station in Hawaii and now it was my turn to help her welcome her first baby into the world.
Hawaii was wonderful and I was fortunate that we already had friends there since Paul spent most of his time there on deployment to the Philipines and Okinawa.
As we moved on ( to other states) our lives parrelled each others
In other ways our lives were different.
She taught school, I became a Nurse. Our daughters are about the same age. I had a third, a son.
We have both learned the hard way through the loss of close friends to take advantage of opportunities when they arise to reconnect. There may not be a next time and the time is now.
For me and I hope for her as well it was huge heart deposit. Reconnecting, hearing about her children and the excitement of a new grandbaby along the way was so fun.
We will have more opportunities to connect in the future..that is the best part.
My parents gave me a great example of long standing friendships. When they celebrated a signiicant anniversary I wrote to many of their friends asking for letters for a scrapbook I was creating. They all came through including my father’s first boss. I got a glimpse into my parents lives as a young couple through the eyes of people who knew them best.
I treasure that album and so did Mom and Dad.
Once when I knew we would be near some dear friends in Denver during a layover I contacted them. We had a lovely breakfast together before we boarded . It was so fun. I hesitated contacting them since our time together would be short. It was just a couple of hours but it was the best.
I never hesitate anymore to try and reconnect with dear friends when traveling. When it works out it is often one of the most remembered highlights of my travels.
So here is to treasured friends. Whenever we meet to catch up I think I’ve won the friend lottery and I have the heart depostis to show for it! Cheers!
As always, keep triing,
Jennifer
P.S. Well after much research it turns out the reason no one was getting my posts via email was because there was no unsubscribe button ( seriously? How rude!) With some help from a tech guru we are all ready to go. Facebook often doesn’t play nice either so if you don’t want to search for my weekly bits of insight and humor you can get this in your inbox every Tuesday ( a day earlier than everyone else 🙂 Just fill out the very annoying pop up in this post!
All grammatical and spelling errors are my gift to you and may you have a magical day or several 🙂
I hope you get some heart deposits soon. The best thing is they can’t be spent or withdrawn, just paid forward.
I was recently published in the book ” So God Made a Mother” ( you can order it here) and I am working on a yet to be named novel. My six grandchildren keep me young and my very organized hubby Paul tolerates my very unorganized yiddle ( middle and youngest) self. Opposites do attract 🙂