Old Friends are the Best Friends

I hope you realize when I say "Old Friends" I don't mean OLD friends....I just means friends you've had for a long time. Joan and I met probably 25 years ago through our kids. Most of the friends I have today I met through my kids....from Girl Scouts and PTA. I'm not sure I remember exactly how we met, but at the time I was doing home daycare, and I began babysitting Joan's two kids, JJ and Mary. JJ was right in the middle of my two boys, Doug and Nick, agewise.....and Mary was the same age as my daughter Jamie. The kids all got along famously, and I found myself becoming great friends with their mother (which didn't always happen, believe me!) Joan and I had the same type of personality, the same sense of humor, the same ideas regarding life and kids, etc. We spent lots of time together besides the time I spent caring for her kids....we went to her house and hung out at her pool, we had coffee together and talked, talked, talked. Perhaps five years after we met, Joan's husband Jeff got transferred to Ohio, and sadly, I no longer had Joan right here in town to visit with. We stayed in touch for a long time....the summer after she left we piled the kids in the car and drove them out to Ohio to visit for a week. It was the first real vacation we'd ever taken, and we had a blast. Years of Christmas cards and notes followed. With the advent of email, we got in touch again, but really only talked sporadically. Recently, we started corresponding again and through the magic of emails and blogs, we've caught up on each other's lives. Our children are all grown, but as we all know, that doesnt' mean we arent' still parents and it's nice to have someone again to talk with, console with and give and take advice with. We even both have a grandchild now! Joan has become quite a quilter, and I was stunned this week to get a package in the mail from her containing a beautiful Care Bear quilt she'd made and sent for my baby grand-daughter! It's absolutely wonderful to have her back in my life again. She's been talking about visiting NH again.....I hope she does so we can see each other face to face and reminisce about all the great times we've had. Thank you so much, Joan for your wonderful gift! It's a gift we'll treasure always!