I ran into my old friend, Karen, last night that I haven’t seen since she was in the hospital room with me the day after Clare was born. Her daughter was around Clare’s age now on that day. Since seeing her, I have been flooded with emotions ranging from happiness to sadness that I let all of this time slip away. I think her about all of the time and I really started wondering last night, “How in the world did three years pass and we just didn’t see each other? How does this happen in life?” This is a good person, someone I’ve laughed with, cried with, and played with. I was there when her first child, who is now in the 3rd grade, was born. He was the first baby I had ever held. She called me on her way into the hospital that night – I probably drove 100 m.p.h to get to the hospital on time because I had to drive 3 hours from Mobile to Montgomery and didn’t want to start my journey until morning. I gambled on her delivery time and won. Were it not for her, I might not have run back into Mason so many years ago here in Birmingham. She was in my wedding. She is the keeper of secrets that are old now, but not old enough that I have forgotten then. She is that kind of wonderful friend, not at all the kind you want to lose.
I suppose it happened gradually. The phone calls turned into emails, and the emails got further and further apart and just finally stopped because it’s just too hard to respond, or too easy to make excuses?
I hope I don't let that time get by me again. I don't think I will. I feel like I've been given a present!