Teenage Friends and Memories

When I was in high school, I had three good friends I hung around with-a set of twins and their younger sister.  My mom forbade me to see them, but that never stopped me.  Their mom was divorced and was dating so to my mom, she was a whore....which meant the daughters were as well.  Well, the irony of it all was that all the while my mom was condemning their mom for dating, my mom was running around every night with her boyfriend.  This went on for as long as I remember and was still going on when I left home.  Talk about hypocritical.  My mom just could not help herself.  Her boyfriend was the love of her life, her soul mate.  

But, I'm not here to write about my mom today.  I'm here to talk about my friends.  Every morning I'd leave my house to go to school and head for their house. There we would exchange outfits for day and other things teenage girls did.  Eventually, though my mom won out, and we parted ways.  At 26 I moved to the city and never really thought of them until a few years back when I joined Classmates.  By now I was in my Crone years and yearning for some ties to my past.  And I found them.  My friend Cheryl and her sister, Jamie, and I became friends on FB and found comfort in reminiscing about our youth.  I was supposed to go to visit them in our neighborhood and we were going to hang out, but then there was a transit strike, and that put and end to that.  Unfortunately, I never have gotten there to see them.

Jamie is in the black dress with a sweater.  I am at the end with my hair in an upsweep.

This was my high school year book pick.  I am second from the end in front.

This was Cheryl's senior picture in the yearbook.

And then I see a post on Jamie's page asking for prayers for Cheryl because she was going through a very rough patch.  Now mind you, Jamie is an avid Trump supporter.  I just delete and block all her posts about the glory of Trump and have made it a point to NEVER post politics or religion on my FB page.  So, she has no idea that I am one of these 'snowflakes' she is always condemning.  So when she posted nothing more about Cheryl I just assumed it was something to do with her family, or marriage, etc.  Never did I think health because Jamie was still busy posting about Trump.  Her biggest complaint was that she couldn't get to the rally in Milford.  

I kept checking hers and Cheryl's page but nothing more was said.  So you imagine my shock when I read yesterday that Cheryl was doing slightly better and was taken off the ventilator. Cheryl was obviously very, very ill.  I just could not, COULD NOT believe that your sister is lying in the hospital near death and all you can talk about is Trump.  I am truly flabbergasted.  If it were my family member he would be the least of my concerns. I'm still shaking my head about it.

On an even more personal level, this has also made me think about my own mortality.  Here is a childhood friend, a year younger than I am, fighting for her life. I'll soon be 74.  How much time will I have left?  We sort of discussed feelings about Covid and how it has effected us seniors in one of my groups.  We all agreed that this is not the way we thought we would spend the last years of our lives.  I wonder, just what will the new norm be like.