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| Silver sisters, she calls us! |
I went to primary school with Liz and spent quite a few afternoons at her house after school. "Be home by five" was always mum's instruction.
So off we would go, round the corner, past my grandparents house, almost to the back gate of the school and then down the side street to Liz's place. It was a white house with floral carpet and half size two-way doors into the kitchen. I thought the swinging doors were fantastic, like something from a TV show and I thought the floral carpet was really old. These days I'm not sure if it was old or just more European in style than what I was accustomed to.
We would go to the golf course opposite and look for tadpoles in the creek or just generally muck about.
Liz's dad was a huge and quiet man who I interpreted as grumpy and her mum was a tiny little, warm hearted lady who sometimes took us bowling and signed in to the bowling centre under her maiden name because her married name was too hard to spell! There was a yappy dachsund who I was a bit scared of.
When we went to different high schools I lost touch with Liz, just occasionally we would run into each other at the shops or in the street but I guess we both had other things to focus on so we didn't stay in touch.
In the last couple of years I have often seen her at the pub where I went for trivia, I would invite her to join us and she would decline. Sometimes she would see me advertise some odd thing on a facebook free page and she would drop by to pick it up.
I asked her to my birthday party and she visited me in hospital, bringing a healing crystal and a pretty lidded cup.
And so, unexpectedly to me, we seem to be friends again after almost 40 years.
Her Dad passed away this week and unable to take time away from work I intended to send a card but today a message came "If you want to come to the funeral, please do. Mum loves you"
Isn't it interesting how life twists and turns?
I'm sure many people would have a similar story.
ReplyDeleteHi Red,
DeleteI'm sure it's a common story but for some reason Liz was the last one I would expect
This a hopeful story for the future of old friendships. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHer confidence, plus a little luck and a dollop of goodwill made it happen
DeleteHere’s to a new/old friendship or should that be old/new friendship…..whatever, enjoy the next phase in this friendship (and if at all possible, try to get to the funeral)
ReplyDeleteHi Cathy,
DeleteI can make it to the wake and they seem ok with that
How lovely, to rekindle an old friendship. Reading through the comments I am glad that you can get to the wake. It sounds as if it will mean a lot.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's nice. She's a larger than life character and easy to be around.
DeleteThe mass was going to be hard to fit in to my schedule but the wake works perfectly and I'll be happy to go
Revived friendships like that are wonderful. A year or so ago I happened to see a Facebook post by a woman I knew about 50 years ago and got in touch with her. We're now good friends again.
ReplyDeleteI like the way she found it easier to sign under her original name!
When you say it was 50 years I think thats sooooo long ago but here's me talking about 40
DeleteI hope that now you have properly reconnected the two of you will keep nourishing your relationship and of course, I hope you will make it to her dad's funeral even though his surname was hard to spell. Was it Smith?
ReplyDeleteYorkie,
DeleteI'll be at the wake if not the mass.
Remember the days when we would painstaking spell out names and addresses? Even easy names wouldn't always be obvious to the people writing. It's less necessary these days.
I hope I rekindle some friendships one day - I think it's lovely that you've been able to do this.
ReplyDeleteSx
Thank you, Ms Scarlet
DeleteI remember my mother telling me my female friendships were my key to a happy life and honestly? I've never lost track of my old friends - oldest being of 67 years duration and counting. Many have died, of course, and two are in dementia at the moment, but we have sustained each other through thick and thin over the years.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you are reunited with your childhood friend. They are the best.
XO
WWW
WWW,
DeleteSiblings and friends are with us for the longest time. I agree with your mum.
Old friends reentering our lives is a very pleasurable experience. I have experienced it as have other friends who too confirm how nice it is to reconnect.
ReplyDeleteYou have often talked about re-connecting with old friends, Ramana. I don't so many people will seek me out :)
DeleteHow cool. I wish I could reconnect with some of my old friends I neglected when my mum needed help and the kids were keeping my busy. How I regret that.
ReplyDeleteJoe, Good friends will forgive you for being busy and overwhelmed. Are you able to reach out?
DeleteWow that is lovely Kylie. The world is sometimes a very small place.
ReplyDeleteIt helps that both sets of parents still lived in the original family homes, drawing adult daughters back to the same area
DeleteAs they say in the Doric (Aberdeenshire) :
ReplyDeleteGweed Wirds.
And Good Words don't come better than yours, Kylie.
A friendship renewed, after years in the doldrums, is a Gweed Gift.
Jack
p.s. read online *Flora Garry Gweed Wirds*.
Flora was an Aberdeenshire poet.
Hi Jack,
DeleteI don't think I have heard of Doric before (except Doric columns) I listened to a clip of Flora Garry's poetry, it sounds lovely :)
Gweed Wirds are gweed recited though complex poetry is for the inner ear.
Delete*Ithaca/ Constantine Cavafy /By Harry Sideropoulos.* YouTube.
The poem is also read by Sean Connery and Tom O'Bedlam.
Scottish readers need a glossary when reading Burns or Hugh MacDiarmid.
English poet Philip Larkin had such an aversion to the old Scots language that he had someone else make the Scottish selection for the Oxford Book of Poetry.
Great postwar poets such as Edwin Morgan, Iain Crichton Smith, Norman MacCaig, W.S. Graham and George Bruce used Scots sparingly or not at all, but it haunts their work. Kathleen Jamie is writing today in the two registers, English-Scots.
You would enjoy reading the Perth poet William Soutar (1898-1943) because his poems in old Scots could not be said in English.
Likewise Walter Scott's eerie *Proud Maisie*.
Stevenson could write in English and Scots: read *Blows the Wind Today* online.
Robert Fergusson's *The Daft Days* (1750-1774) is great fun though you need a glossary.
'Heaven sent Fergusson' predated Robert Burns and he died in a mental asylum.
William Dunbar's *Lament for the Makars* is medieval and haunts the history of poetry. The Makars are the poets. American poet John Berryman liked his work.
Read the Scots Quair trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901-1935) which is packed with the rich vocabulary of his Kincardineshire Mearns upbringing.
The movie of *Sunset Song* by Terence Davies dropped the 'Mearns speak' but there was a BBC series starring Vivien Heilbron which was faithful to speech.
I saw a few scenes on YouTube and it felt very authentic.
Grassic Gibbon finished his trilogy with *Cloud Howe* and *Grey Granite* (the latter set in Aberdeen) and wrote a novel about Spartacus. He died so young.
The spare and sometimes violent Scottish Border Ballads influenced Muriel Spark.
There is a BBC documentary on her, The Prime of Muriel Spark. YouTube.
Jack
*BBC Two HD The Many Primes of Muriel Spark (2018).*
DeleteDiMarco Documentaries. YouTube.
J.H.
There are some friends you can be apart from for years and years - and then when you meet up it's kinda like "so, where were we"? And that's true friendship!
ReplyDeleteI feel as though I don't actually know her given that we were about 10 in those days but it doesn't seem to put her off :)
DeleteShe didn't add that she loves you, although I suppose she might. Peggy and I had two best friends in college, and they (Lynn and Christy) married one another shortly after Peggy and I were married. After decades of nothing but Xmas cards, they visited in 2018. Now, Christy is dying of a brain tumor. She is now in the hospital as I write, and might even die today, but, best case scenario, she will live long enough to celebrate her 50th anniversary in January, an event that Peggy and I will celebrate next month.
ReplyDeleteSnow,
DeleteI think Liz is so sociable and vivacious, she loves everyone (or maybe most people)
Friendships can be tricky to define, I have one friend who I have spent time with, cooked for her when she was ill, cleaned her fridge when she was moving house etc etc but just recently she realised I am "inner circle"
I really hope Christy makes it to her 50th but only if she doesn't suffer horribly. In fact, they really should celebrate it now, it's not as though they were going to separate in the next few months.
Many congrats to you and Peggy!
I'll think about suggesting the idea of an early celebration. I simply hesitate because I have no idea how idea if they are resigned to such an early. Just recently, they went from strongly favoring aggressive treatment to talking about palliative care, and Lynn has said that she is only likely to live for a few months no matter what they do, but maybe a few months for him doesn't mean January. I'll have to think about this.
DeleteIt was just an idea of mine, you would have a lot better idea about it's appropriateness
Delete