How Time Really Does Fly By

I recieved an email yesterday in my inbox from a friend who I actually became friends with in a strange way but it is a lasting friendship, that I have just realized has thus far spanned 18 years. I met Blanche while waiting in the food stamp office in New Jersey. She was sitting there with her husband and a carriage with two newborn twins, a boy and a girl. They were so tiny and adorable and the little girl actually looked like an EWOK so I used to call her my little EWOK. I was there with my daughter, who was then 3 and my son, who was then 2 was with his grandmother that day.

As usual, I began talking to her, because I will strike up conversations with just about anyone and anywhere I may be. I am friendly and found that you can learn a lot from people and about people this way. Anyway, we began talking and she told me that she had just had the twins 4 days prior and that she had two other children at home, a girl, who was 8 and a boy who was 3. She was telling me the adventure in how they were born and how she was on her way to actually get her tubes tied and found out she was pregnant, because they do a routine pregnancy test before the surgery. So, the surgery was called off and another pregnancy was on its way. The day that they were born was the same as any other, they were not due for another month so she kissed her hubby good-bye sending him off to work like she did each day. Well, little did she know that the babies had other ideas…..shortly after he left, labor came and due to the fact of previous pregnancies, it went quick. This was before everyone having cell phones so her husband was not at work yet so she called the ambulance and they came and thinking they had enough time to make the short ride to the hospital, they made the trek. Well, baby number one came out in the ambulance on the highway and soon after, came baby number two in the parking lot of the hospital. The ambulance was equipped to handle the birth of babies but only one…..so it was good that they were there at the hospital. I appreciated the fact that my kids at least waited until I was at the hospital, my daughter at a decent hr of the morning 10:44 and my son, an ungodly hour of 2:32 AM but still I was there. The way she told the story kept me glued to my seat and one eye on her and one eye on the babies.

As anyone who ever had to sit in a government office of this kind knows, you can wait for hours, so this new frienship helped pass the time. Eventually she went with her caseworker and I with mine but not before she let me hold them. As she left, I told her good-bye, how I was glad to have met her and that since she lived in the town where I grew up in maybe one day I would run into her again. Well I did and sooner then I imagined. The day was a rainy one. When I was leaving it was pouring……I mean the skies opened up and you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. It was thundering, lightening and pouring. As my daughter and I were running to the car she said, “mommy there is that lady you were talking to”. They were having car trouble and were stuck. I felt so bad and asked if I could help and they said they were waiting for a tow truck and that it was going to be an hr or two before it would get there. I offered to take her and the babies home. So we packed her car seats, her children, and us into the car and off we went leaving her husband with her car. When we got to her house, the rain had stopped, thank goodness so I helped her upstairs with her things. She told me to wait a second and came from her second floor with a bunch of tupperward and said she did not have money but would like it if I would take the tupperware as a thank you. I said it was not necessary because I do not mind helping others and it was just something any normal good hearted person would have done.

Since that day, we have been friends. When I lived in NJ I saw her almost everyday when the kids were young, because , my daughter, Sam and her son Vinny were the same age and became best buddies often walking down the street holding hands and investigating the flowers, bugs and trees together. Daniel would play with them too since he was close in age and Blanche and I got along so well. As it turned out her brother is married to a friend of mine from H.S. too. Blanche was there for me through a lot of hard times. She always listened when I needed to talk and I was always there for her as well. She also made the best meatloaf….well now she has a close competition with another good friend of mine, Brigitte. We even realized once that we would be in Florida at the same time so we surprised the kids and met at Universal Studios and hung out together there.

I was fixing my computer last night and while I wrote to her to make sure she sent me an email with a link attached for making money, I told her to wish her child a happy birthday although, I mixed up the kids. But 18 years later all the kids are still friends, Blanche and I are still friends and my little EWOK, no longer looks like an EWOK but has turned into a beautiful young woman. Her eldest daughter has just had a baby also, making her a grandmother too for the first time. It does not seem like 18 years. There are times, like when you are tired at work when 5 minutes seems like an eternity, but this does not seem like 18 years has already passed.