“There is no possession more valuable than a good and faithful friend.” Socrates
Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a young girl who left home and went to Bible college. She was shy and quiet, with dark brown hair. On her first day, she noticed another young girl, who was small and cute, with long brown hair. The shy girl wanted to get to know cute girl right away.
One day, shy girl was eating lunch when cute girl sat down beside her at the same table. Shy girl found out that the cute girl’s name was Joanna. Joanna started making conversation and somehow, very soon, found out that Shanda (the shy girl’s name) had a boyfriend. Joanna also had a boyfriend (her future husband) and this became their #1 common interest. Shanda was asked many questions that day about her relationship with Rich (who was her future husband). . . . . . . . . . .
In fact, when I look back on the year I spent in college–and remember my conversations with Joanna–I think most of them were about Steve and Rich. We were both convinced that we had met the men we were going to marry.
And we were right! After we graduated (from the 1 year Bible program), Joanna married Steve in July and I married Rich in September.
My firstborn, Jacob, was born the next year and that was when I wrote to Joanna for the first time. To my delight, she wrote back and our friendship was continued. Now we could write about marriage and babies.
I don’t know how these passed 13 years have gone by so quickly. Lots of changes have occured in our lives. But through it all, we’ve had 13 years of writing lots and lots of letters, then emails, some phone calls, sending packages in the mail, and some visits. Along the way we became the best of friends.
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.” Aristotle
There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about Joanna. There is something special about a friendship that grows slowly through letter writing. We share our hearts. Because I write and read her letters in private, the relationship is more personal. Each visit is a monumental one, something to look forward to, and something to celebrate with non-stop chatter, hugs, and photos.
We got to see each other this summer, on August 7. We met at a Crackerbarrel. I was so excited because I had not seen her in 3 years. I got there first and was writing on the “front porch” in a rocking chair when I saw her walking quickly up the sidewalk toward me. She looked so good. We hugged each other and immediatly started talking–and did not stop for 6 hours. After lunch we drove to Barnes and Noble and sat in the cafe. We looked at a magazine together, I had coffee, she had tea, we laughed and talked and looked at our cameras. We went over to look at the journals–and I discovered that she really really loves a good journal–we browsed through them for quite a while and we both bought the same one. We will use them as our nature journals.
still cute!
Taking her back to Crackerbarrel to her vehicle was sad. The visit was over. As we both drove out of the parking lot, I cried. I felt totally drained (in a good way!) and very satisfied with our visit. We still had chemistry–our friendship was still everything I thought it was.
I know without a shadow of a doubt that Joanna and I will always be friends, always. I will always love her. She means so much to me. . .by the way, she’s the reason why I started blogging. I didn’t even know what it was until she started her blog here on xanga and begged me to join in on the fun.
The best thing about the story of “us” is that there is no end. We will dance through life together and then share eternity together in heaven. Our friendship has a “happily ever after”. And maybe my mansion will be right next to hers.
Good to be Home 