I have been nominated to participate in the bloggers’ 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge. Thank you, The Daily Geekette, for nominating me!
The rules of the challenge are as follows:
- Thank the person who nominated you.
- Post a quote for three consecutive days (one quote per day).
- Nominate three new bloggers each day!
My first quote is from Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery.
“True friends are always together in spirit.” (Anne Shirley).
I felt great affinity with Anne, because she was also a redhead, and a reader, who marched to the beat of her own drum, and wore her heart on her sleeve. A quick perusal of Pinterest leaves no doubt that Anne’s reflections, a perfect combination of realism and idealism, were made for memes and English-class posters. But I’m not just choosing this quote because it’s a platitude that looks good on a FB wall.
I got some news yesterday. An old friend, Paige, recently passed away unexpectedly. Her mom called my mom; thought we’d like to know. We were BEST friends from the time I moved in next door to her, about age 3, to the time my family moved away, just before I turned 7. We started school together, at Robbinswood Elementary, waiting for the school bus singing “Bus, bus, b-u-s!”. We watched Felix the Cat, and Here Come the Brides, and Lesley Ann Warren as Cinderella. We listened to “Charming Billy” on her little portable record player, and tried out her mom’s Dippity Do with that pink zig-zag-edged tape for making curls. She had one of those pink portable hair dryers, too, the ones that had a little dipstick you could dip in perfume so your hair would be infused with the scent… We’d sing “Georgy Girl”, and (as her she reminded her mom not long before she died) “Pumpkin pie makes you die, Comet makes you vomit”… We each had two sisters, and our moms spent a lot of time together, and so did we. We were inseparable, until we were on opposite coasts.
I hadn’t actually seen Paige since we were about 8 or 9. We wrote letters to each other for YEARS, though it slowed down once we hit high school and college. But we kept in touch, usually by Christmas cards, and an occasional call, up until a few years ago. Not sure why it fell off — you know how it goes: most of us don’t send cards and letters like we used to — but we always figured we could catch up. You sort of assume that the person is out there, living their life, and that eventually you can reconnect, but it’s never a real priority, so you don’t go out of your way. We all have lives to lead and we all get busy. But… this is the SECOND friend of mine from my youth who has died after a period of disconnect — that I didn’t get a chance to catch up with, or say goodbye to. And a friend of my husband’s from college, as well. This is a scary little dose of reality, and it’s difficult to avoid being a little maudlin.
It is startling when a contemporary dies: facing one’s mortality is rarely comfortable. Hey, my generation isn’t that old! But I guess we are. I guess we are. I’m sad for her mother, who didn’t expect to outlive her child, and her son, going off to college in September, and her two sisters, who are devastated. But I’m also sad because a bit of my childhood is gone with her. She knew me when I was young, and I knew her. Those shared memories are gone. The world we shared is gone. It slips through your fingers so easily you don’t realize you no longer hold it until it’s gone.
Perhaps Anne Shirley would comfort me, telling me that by remembering Paige, and our childhood friendship, she will always be with me in spirit. It’s a lovely sentiment. But I’m still sorry I missed the chance to connect, one more time. This Sunday would have been Paige’s 53rd birthday. So, I’ll remember her then, and remember who I was, as well.
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