The Faces of Friends

Some days I am sure that some how, some way, magically the keeper of time has called timeout and the clock has stopped momentarily. On very rare occasions, it seems as though the maker of time has catapulted me to a place in time past. That happened twice today.

We had received a call Thursday from the husband of my very best school friend. He wanted the four of us to get together. They live almost 90 minutes west from us on the coast in Dana Point. So he said they would drive here to our community to meet for lunch on Saturday (today).

I met her when we were in junior high school. My family had moved here during the summer so I was new to this community. She invited me to have lunch with the group of girls she was eating with. We became fast and close friends. She was so easy going, so fun loving, so full of life. She knew everyone and liked everyone. She's always smiling, but even when her mouth isn't, her eyes smile. I named my daughter after her.

Today we arrived to the restaurant ahead of them. I knew her hair would be long and it would be gray; she was always natural and coloring her hair would not be her style. When they walked through the door, I waved from the back of the restaurant; immediately I could hear her full-of-life laughter. For the next three hours, we dissected the past while laughing and musing about our meager beginnings as young marrieds. She is not quite two months younger than I am. I was 15 when I married Mr. Fun and two-years-later she was 17 when she quit high school to marry Mr. Surfer. They are still married and obviously quite happy.

Today she has a major job in the library at the high school in their community. He is recently retired from owning his own construction company. He has built some of the most expensive beach homes along the southern Orange County coast.

We enjoyed an immensely meaningful 3+ hours and said our farewell with a promise that we'd be together again real soon. I'll keep you posted on this.


Then at 6:00 p.m. we were scheduled to be at a birthday party for our friend Annie. She was celebrating what she was calling the "double-nickels" birthday. Michael & Annie live about 45 minutes to the east of us in the community of Moreno Valley. We haven't seen them in three, four, or five years . . . I'm really not sure. They are both on the right-side of the photo.

The birthday party turned into another "frozen in time" moment, as we met up with their adult kids, grandkids, and also several friends we had not seen in quite sometime. A long time friend. Lynn, is on the bottom left of the photo. She has been a widow for almost two years.

Truly the Ted Kooser poem about stopping time would complement this day. It was included on my page two days ago. I love the poem, but won't repeat it here, but will link it.

Good night from the place "where time stopped," if just for a while, today.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol