You never really know how the people you meet in your life will effect you. Initially you may be underwhelmed with someone and down the road you become great friends. Maybe they are just a little girl when you meet them, barely in grammar school, and as you watch them grow and become a grown woman, and mother themselves, its hard to forget of them as that vulnerable little girl you first met.
Recently very good friends of ours called with some devastating news. Their daughter was having health issues and there was concern that she might have cancer that was spreading, potentially into her blood. They would know on, of all days, Friday the 13th, and unbelievably, their daughters birthday too if this was the case.
Linda and I are not practicing religious people but we both held our breath for her and kept her in our thoughts all week. We just couldn't imagine the worst possible news and we were on emotional pins and needles.
You think that you can't have those feelings for someone that is not your flesh and blood but while we don't have children of our own, we have grown close to many of them around us. Certainly we are very close to our nieces and nephew and their children. We have several good friends with children and grandchildren who we care deeply about. This young woman is in that latter group.
When the phone rang yesterday, and the caller ID showed it was our friend, my heart started racing and and I anxiously tried to get a sense of the emotions on the other end of the call to gauge what I was about to hear.
Our friend said she was going to just read something to me. My first thought was, oh no it can't possibly be. As she read me the text she got from her daughter after her doctors visit it was happily clear that the news was about as good as you could hope for.
She is expected to live a wonderfully long life, the cancer was very early and small and minor chemo will take care of it and anything else that might be hiding in her. There will be a special treatment she will follow to keep her healthy but she is going to be ok.
I was shocked to find myself actually crying as I heard the news. I did not expect to be so emotional and I realized then, how close we've become to not only her parents, but her as well.
At our age we get way too many calls that are going the other way. Our family and friends are getting older and health problems are starting to pile up for all of us. It was so refreshing to actually get some good news for a change that I think it added to the emotion of the moment.
Obviously we wish her, her family, and of course our friends all the best going forward. We will continue to keep her in our thoughts and we will relish each day that we get to enjoy her being around, healthy and happy.