Isn’t it wonderful when you reconnect with someone from your past? Last month, while doing a signing at the wonderful Barnes and Noble store in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, I noticed a familiar face. Lo and behold, it was my good friend, Cheri–I hadn’t seen her in an embarrassing number of years. Her lovely smile was still the same.
Back in the old days, neither Cheri nor I had the proverbial two nickels to rub together. We met at our daughters’ dance school in Bremerton, Washington, when they were hardly more than toddlers. We haunted the main library in Bremerton–checked out piles of books and discussed them in depth, and often when one of us returned a book, the other would be waiting to check it out. We devoured Taylor Caldwell, Velda Johnston, Dorothy Eden, Victoria Holt, and the wonderful Janice Holt Giles. Beyond books, we were a two-woman support system. I was new in town, and not particularly happily married, and I knew no one–until Cheri.
Somehow, busy with children, divorces and all manner of other things, we lost touch. You can only imagine my delight when I saw her standing there at the book store, smiling at me.
Now, Cheri lives in Spokane. Yesterday, we went to lunch together, and did some catching up. We talked and talked–in, of all places, the bar at Northern Quest Casino. (That’s another story. I didn’t come home with a jackpot, but I played all afternoon on a hundred bucks. :)) It will take many more lunches before we truly catch up on all those intervening years, but in the meantime, what a joy this is to me!
Cheri, I’m so glad you’re back in my life. I missed you.
