Reflections: Life Memories

I woke up this morning to find my dearest sister-friend had posted, on Facebook, a memory of an adventure she had shared with her son a few years ago. It was a beautiful reminder of the adventures we have shared in the past. When I say past, I mean like almost 36-38 years worth of memories.

We met by accident, when she and her husband were visiting his parents and I had stopped by to drop something off. She says she remembers me being dressed all in white. I was probably on my way home from work( nurse) and I was probably paying my rent as her in-laws were the managers of the apartment building I lived in. It amazes me that such a small, chance meeting has turned into a life long friendship. Of course, her brother-in-law helped cement those ties a couple of years later, by asking me to marry him, and we became sisters-in-law.

We have shared some fun times and some not so fun times - but all are memory making times. Three times we were at various stages of childbearing in the same years. Our kids have been in and out of each other's homes like they were their own. She loves my kids and I love hers so much.

We have taken our kids trick-or-treating together in  her town and in our small village. We even went to an historical site one year and watched an old-time magician perform on the stage of the theater, trick-or-treated for old-fashioned goodies such as what would have been handed out in the 1800's, and danced under the stars to a band playing in the gazebo in the square.

Her kids have ridden bareback on our horses, gathered eggs in our hen house, played with the new kittens and rode the current down the creek in our backyard.

They have built gingerbread houses together, picked huckleberries in the mountains, and pressed apples for juice.
And we have shared some sad times, such as the passing of a much loved aunt and a most wonderful grandfather. We have shared each others life-struggles.

Some of those life struggles had us moving across the country to new adventures that could only be shared in the telling. We had the opportunity to reconnect several years ago and, though there were some major changes in our family dynamics, we have always been, and will always be, sisters.

We have been on many adventures together, become mothers -in-law to some pretty special people, and grandmothers to the most delightful children.

Even though she lives in another country now, we connect on a daily basis through technology. I miss going on adventures with her, but love seeing her photos of the adventures she is having in her adopted homeland. One day, one of us will visit the other and we will make some fantastic memories again. Love you and miss you, my Sister-Friend.