The welcome mat is out
July 21, 2006 at 10:07 Tomorrow morning my pal Lynn and her two children arrive in Brussels after an all night flight from Virginia. She's coming despite the sky-high cost of plane tickets, a passport hassle that required an overnight trip to D.C. to iron out, and the fact that her schedule only allows her to stay a week.
Less intrepid souls would have given up on this trip a long time ago.
Lynn and I have been friends for more than 20 years. We met in college when we had a class together but our friendship didn't take off until a few years later at Low Maintenance Grrrl's wedding. Low Maintenance Grrrl and I grew up in a rural area of Virginia served by a single small airport that was located about an hour away. It was never an inexpensive or easy place to get a flight to and I was running into logistical problems trying to plan my trip from Oklahoma to Low Maintenance Grrrl's wedding.
Lynn lived in a bigger city with a much better airport. I flew in there, and Lynn and her family graciously hosted me for a day or two before the wedding. Keep in mind, I'd never met her parents and had only a passing acquaintance with Lynn at this point, but when she heard I was in a bit of jam with travel plans, she jumped right in to help out.
That long weekend of the wedding was the beginning of a much longer friendship. Lynn and I hit it off big time and after I went home we began exchanging letters. We wrote frequently and I was always happy to find a fat envelope addressed in her backward-slanting cursive in my mailbox. We discussed movies, books, politics, her dating life, my marriage, and the hard task of getting established in life. Every year I traveled back to Virginia to see my parents for a week and every year Lynn drove three hours to come see me while I was there.
When I finally left Oklahoma and moved to Virginia, we were thrilled to be relatively close to one another. We visited one another several times a year (until our kids got big and our weekends clogged with activities!). My kids call her Aunt Lynn and referred to her children as "their cousins from Virginia Beach." We've shared enough holidays and special occasions together that I know quite a few members of her extended family. Like everyone else, she's busy with work, home, and volunteer commitments, but she always finds time to jot a note or squeeze in a visit or help someone out.
I'm praying Belgium delivers some mighty fine weather and cool breezes while she's here, but no matter what, I know we're in for a great week together, even if we spend it spraying one another with a water bottle!
Reader Comments (7)
And I really love this line "Less intrepid souls would have given up on this trip a long time ago." It's gonna stick with me, I'm sure.