“Stay is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.”  Louisa May Alcott

 

I drove alone to her house on a Friday morning and stayed until Sunday.

We’ve been friends for 20 years, through Bible college, snail mail letters (fat was good), emails, phone calls, visits few and far between.

There is something special about long distance friendships….the heart comes through so much easier in letters and emails, a closeness is gained when hiding behind a pen.

Oh but the visits are the icing on the cake.

God is so good to give us our people.  The ones to share a life with.

Joanna is a beautiful soul.  She is creative and her home oozes with her ideas.  She and her husband Steve have a relationship of closeness and understanding; he cleared up time for her, by taking on household chores, caring for the children, making meals, so that the two of us could visit.

a few memories::

We played games as a family with so much laughter.

Eti on his pogo stick.

Coco with the shower cap that I gave her from my hotel bathroom.

browsing beautiful shops (we found an old Gladys Taber book)

Dunkin donuts

bic macs

opening gifts

that strange bug

monkey man

Because of Winn Dixie

the bluebird of happiness

herbs from the garden

pinky ring

smell of skunk

a lived in home

recipes

a lost My Little Pony book

race to the bathroom, with a shoulder injury

she let me take her picture

She has a five month old baby boy.  He was good natured and sweet.

we did each other’s nails

She did the coolest thing with me on Saturday.  Steve came up with the idea that she do a “Tour of Joanna”, inspired by an old Seinfeld episode where Kramer drives a bus around and does his crazy Peterman reality tours.

Jo has lived in the same area her whole life so I got to hear fabulous stories and see places from her whole life.

***

back home again……..

I gave the kids pixie sticks.

We worked on scrapbook pages at the outside table.  She let me look through old illustration books to cut and use.

she gave me her drawing and I glued it in my book

selfie in the bird room

church on Sunday

After church we went back to the house for lunch.

Eti (12 years old) made this grenade out of an empty lemon juice bottle.

While waiting for dinner I sat on the couch, looking at one of Jo’s library books, with Tsega at the other end.

After delicious African chicken stew, we played a few rounds of a fun game together before I had to leave for the long drive back home.

It hurt to leave.  I had a lovely time with my friend.

 

Friendship

isn’t about who came first

or who you’ve known the longest.

It’s about who came

and never left.

~anonymous