Today I received an email from an old friend. Well, actually it was from her mother, sister and daughter. They must have sent the invitation to her memorial to everyone in her email address book. At my age loosing friends is part of life and to be expected. There is more to this story.
Christine and I met when my son and her daughter attended the same grade school in the early nineties. Christine and I worked together on several school events and became friends. The four of us started doing things together and our friendship grew. One of our favorites was driving to Eastern Washington to visit Grandpa Bud. Bud lived on a small ranch and had horses and a few head of cattle. We would spend the weekend riding horses, relaxing and visiting with our hosts.
In the late nineties when my family moved to a southern part of the state, it seemed too far to travel for either of us so we gradually lost contact. You know how it is. Softly, like a clearing mist, the friendship simply dissolves into living a new life.
Last Winter I found Christine again and we spoke several times on the phone and exchanged a few emails. Our lives had changed, but shared experiences retained a tenuous bond. I said I would plan a visit the next time I traveled to Washington.
Summer. I’m out of desert heat and enjoying a particularly beautiful season in the Pacific Northwest. It is my intention to visit with my old friend. But it was an interesting, challenging and busy Summer, so finding a weekend, since Christine works, just didn’t happen.
Here is where the point of my story finally emerges.
I could have made it happen.
Plans could have been changed.
Excuses are easy.
Taking time for friends should never be pushed aside.
You never know when an opportunity to see an old friend is the last one.
Such regrets have entered my life before. I hereby resolve to NEVER let them in again.
I urge you to take the time now. You never know when it will be too late. What seems difficult now, could become impossible at any moment.
Christine and Amanda on Tom in 1993
