Visitors from the past

I will admit to not being a good friend. We both have mutual friends from our high school days that we have not been very good at keeping up with. We have one "friend" who keeps up with us, but we really don't care to maintain contact with them. Still, not all our friends were like that.

There was one friend who was a friend of mine as a very young child, and through a series of events, we all moved a few hours south due to the job our dads did for the government. We grew apart, due to location in our little town, he lived in the town, I lived outside of town, and we developed new friends due to being in different schools, add to that we were different genders. Something about a little boy growing into a young man that doesn't mesh well with a little girl developing into a young lady. I don't understand motors and I don't think he understood curling eyelashes.

By the time we reached high school age, I was taking the bus into town to attend the only high school. We were able to catch up and start a new chapter of friendship. Add to this, the Husband was his best friend. How handy was that! We all became friends and eventually grew up, got married, and separated from the small town. Men being men, they are not known for keeping up friendships that are not immediate, and we lost track of our friend Robert. Over the years, we saw him once on a relocation to the New England  states, but that visit was just a few hours. When his mom and dad died, we didn't get to see him, since his visit was short and we couldn't make it. Then the years were dark.

We didn't hear from him for years. The other "friend" was looking for him, and more power to her. I certainly wasn't going to help her find him, since I figured he just wanted to be left alone with his own life. I wondered how he was and we talked about him from time to time.

Back in 2003 he called us and told us he would be in town and could we visit with them. Sure! It was good to see him. He was really a good friend and it was good to catch up. He had some very dark years and was now in the process of a recovering from alcohol abuse and divorce. He had a new lady, who I really liked and seemed to be on the road to a better life.

This weekend, they were back. It was good to see them, see pictures of his children and to hear about his life. He is going to see his sister and brother, first time in 27 years, and do a little California traveling. I'd forgotten how fun he was, even a kids. He's finished all his schooling and is a registered dietician making a difference in some very specials people's lives. Who knew! It was good to visit with Robert and Judi.