'Make new friends but keep the old'

Last week was a special time for me. Within three days I had two of the best experiences that middle age plus persons can have. I had the pleasure of being with a group of my long-time friends and acquaintances and I became a friend of a group of women that I had never met before. We cherish our friends from the past. The memories of friendships that have survived the years are precious. The fact that I could visit with several special friends at the same time was exciting. We added to each other's stories, learned about current experiences and realized that the bond remains after years have passed. Included in these stories, sadly, were reports of friends who were no longer with us, or who were in poor physical or mental health.

The Butler United Methodist Women had their annual spring meeting for the other United Methodist units in the county or nearby. Since my sister was the speaker I was able to tag along and be a part of the day. In addition to the host women who had been our neighbors and church members for the six years we lived in Butler, most of the guests came from churches that have been important parts of our lives.

A large group from the first church that Lester served, Archie United Methodist Church, came in with big smiles on their faces as we greeted each other. Other friends from Schell City, Harwood, Rich Hill, Virginia, Passaic and other neighboring towns waved to me as they entered. I became a table-hopper trying to greet each of these friends. I was very proud of myself that I could remember the names of almost every one. However there was one woman who had brought one of my books for me to sign for her. She was one I knew very well, but when she handed me the book and asked me to write in it for her I suddenly drew a blank on her name. I started to write "For ." and as I struggled to think, I had an inspiration. I asked her to spell her first name so that I would be sure to get it right. Thankfully, it wasn't something simple like "Mary". Then we got into a conversation about how often people spell their names in different ways, and I escaped my awkward moment.

Two days later I was invited to be the presenter at a workshop for United Methodist Women of St. Mark's Church in St. Louis. We were able to spend the night with the minister and his wife who are friends from years past, but the 44 women attending were all to be strangers to me. However one of the women looked so familiar that I immediately said, "I know you." She acknowledged that she had been in one of my Elderhostels earlier this year. We shared a few moments visiting about that event and were able to tell others about how much fun it was.

The others were all new to me, but it wasn't long before we were all friends. I may not remember everyone's name as I did with the group at Butler, but as we worked, laughed, ate, studied and played together for a full day, we will not forget each other. Most of these women were younger than I am. As I left at the end of the afternoon I realized that these women would be around to possibly share other experiences with me for many years.

One of the best things about the weekend was that Lester was able to get away and go with me. It's always nice to be able to hear him introduced as Carolyn's husband after all the years that I was introduced as Lester's wife.