My husband and I have been friends with the same couple for over 20 years. Those early years when we were all raising kids, we did it together. Really--our kids introduce them as their other parents and vice versa. The kids "ran away" to each other's houses. They knew they weren't going to get any sympathy from the other parents, but it was safe and they could talk. The kids went to church together, stayed overnight with each other, and, yes, fought with each other. Poor Kelli, the only girl, had four older brothers. Sometimes, she needed every one of them.
Raising kids together and being so close, the adults also did everything together, even after the kids were grown and gone. We got together at least once a week all year long. The guys always cooked. We'd have a beer or wine and talk. You'd think after all those years we would run out of things to talk about, but we never did.
And then it happened. Tom got a new job. A new job out of town. A new job in another state.
No more American Idol nights. No more Wii golf on winter weekends. No more...
But at least we still had them next door at the lake. I loved having them next door where I could just run over in my pj's in the morning and have coffee. And Tom always had the best left overs....
And then they moved again. Just to the south end, but still...I can't just run over and borrow whatever I need. I can't pop my head in the door and see what's going on. I can't yell threw the window, "Is it beer-thirty yet?'
So, I adjust. I put my shoes on and walk to the other end of the resort and do those things, but it just isn't the same.
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Amazing how we just get so used to something, then zap, it changes. I admire your ability to be flexible & to walk to the other end, but sympathize with the sadness that change sometimes causes.
ReplyDeleteThe good thing is that even though you don't know what the good thing is yet, there is one. So although this doesn't seem good now, somehow it always turns out good. Imagine if they had never lived next door to you, and they had the lake place on the other side from the beginning...you never would have met and you'd still not know those great people on the other side of the lake...but the way you lived it you do!
ReplyDeleteIs that clear???
I don't like that kind of change either, though.
It must have been bittersweet - Happy for your friends but painful for your own loss.
ReplyDelete