Saturday, September 26, 2009

Paths

I spent last weekend in sunny Ft. Lauderdale tending to some work and catching up with my Bleeding Disorders Family. I ALSO had a chance to meet up with my very first BFF. But let me back track...

Anne moved to our little neighborhood the summer before 4th grade. She's just a month younger than me but because of her birthdate, she was a year behind me in school. It's safe to say that we were BEST friends from day one. (She says I was staring at them as they moved the boxes off the truck...)

We were inseparable. Very different young ladies, but best of buds. She was way more in to pink, long fingernails and curling irons than I ever was. I was our ticket to neighborhood baseball games with the boys, the tree fort in the woods and finding ways around our mother's watchful eyes. Of course we fought like...well, like girls fight. But there was never a time when we didn't have each others backs. She had boyfriends and I was the 3rd wheel...but the boys she liked had to (at least) tolerate me. She dragged me along as we drove back and forth past their houses and I was her go-to girl for prank phone calls.

The summer  between my freshman and sophomore year, Anne's family moved to Connecticut. I was devastated. It was awful. She came back to visit a couple times, I wrote her letters, she called.

2 years later her family moved back to the Midwest - Michigan. And so began the days of us meeting 1/2 way. My mom would drive me half way then Anne and I would head back to her new home in Niles, MI. I spent weeks on end with Anne. It was absolutely awesome. We explored her new town met new friends...just great.

we managed to stay pretty close as we both did our thing in college.

I was married in late 1993, she was married in 1994 and that was, literally, the last time we saw each other. Years past and there was an occasional phone call...our oldest children were born about 4 days apart. Her youngest and my youngest were born on the SAME DAY, 3 years apart.

This summer I tracked my long lost buddy down via facebook and we made plans to meet while I was in Ft. Lauderdale.

I'm still processing the visit...it was just great. We talked and laughed for about 22 hours out of the 28 we spent together. The things that made us besties are still there...but the things that always made us different seem to have taken strange turns.

This is gonna have to be a 2 parter.....

2 comments:

EmergePeoria said...

I'm intrigued.

Mary said...

Me too. I just read this even though you posted it a week ago. Are you still posting a part 2?