Surfing the Net leads to Reunion.
By Julie Sharp Summa
The Daily Comet
Thibodaux, LA
May 12, 1997
Isn't it wonderful when you only have to know where to look on the Internet to find
anyone or anything.
There are databases out there for every purpose.
It's a regular circus.
"Hurry, hurry, step right up," the caller shouts. "Find information on
your research project, your favorite movie, your favorite movie star."
"Find a job, an adopted child, your natural mother, the love of your life, your
long lost best friend..."
Find your long lost best friend...there's a thought.
My mother, the Internet Queen, decided to look around for my high school best friends
Amy and Brenda.
She found them.
I could barely contain myself when I saw e-mail from Amy pop up on my screen at work.
The only shock was that, among other things, her e-mail contained the news that,
according to the rumor mill, I'd been killed by a drunk driver a couple of years ago.
I couldn't help but grin a little.
"Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," I e-mailed back.
The years just seemed to fall away.
She said she hadn't planned to tell Brenda about my "death" until she knew it
was really true.
I was disappointed the rumor hadn't been a little more flashy.
Anyway, living in this area, I'd guess I have about as much chance to be killed by a
bunch of alligators as by a drunk driver.
Brenda, on the other hand, said she was glad Amy hadn't told her. "I would've
fallen apart," she laughed.
Amy and Brenda, thank goodness, were able to keep in touch with each other while I
gallivanted across the countryside finishing my degree and eventually, ending up here in
Thibodaux.
We spent that night on the phone reminiscing and afterwards, under my husband's amused
eye, I drifted off to sleep happily gibbering about old high school memories.
We had been the three musketeers, the stooges, the blind mice...feeling our way through
the adolescent angst of high school and having what adventures we could along the way.
Over the years I knew it hadn't been just us. We all had other friends.
I know I've had good friends along the way, but now that I think of it, never ones to
outdo these women.
We all grew up when we least expected it.
In between traveling to Hungary and working as a Nanny, Amy got her degree in English,
linguistics, but is working as a receptionist while she "finds herself." Brenda
is doing what I always thought she might, teaching young children in the St. Louis area.
(She was always good with kids)
She is also happily decorating her new house, her new husband, and planning a barbecue
as soon as Bruce and I can get the time to go North for a visit. She's a domestic goddess
in the making.
Hearing their voices, I can't believe I lived without them for so long.
But then, I don't think I fully realized until now how much I missed them.
Bruce's best friends, Mike and John, have an honored place in our home. But there was
always an empty space where my friends should have gone.
Now, thank goodness, they're where they should be.
After all, a person needs best friends.
© 1997; The Daily Comet/Comet Press, Thibodaux, LA |
