And suddenly I have a friend (Unexpected Blessings #2)

If I told you about all my friends and how we met and where our friendship is today -  this would become a novel.  I'm hesitating to post this because I don't want any of you that I don't mention to be hurt and feel like I don't value you.  However - this is about finding a friend when I wasn't expecting to...

Tamra Smith and I met when we were in a secretaries group. We always raised our eyebrows or rolled our eyes  at the stodgy women who insisted on following Roberts Rules of Order. That was  almost 20 years ago...the group has long disbanded, but we still raise our eyebrows, roll our eyes - sometimes at the people we see in Bob Evans when we regularly meet for coffee.

 

And then there's Virginia Pillsbury.  A chance meeting for sure. We were both at a Duval County Medical Society meeting.  She was a writer (first reason I liked her), a Christian and to my surprise Episcopalian.  And the strangest thing is that she really hadn't wanted to go to that event. We wasted no time agreeing that we should have coffee...something we have been doing now for four years. 

 

During the summer of 2014 I started noticing an attractive couple as they went to the rail for  communion. There was just something about them that I was drawn to. I did some digging and found out their names...and asked them to help with an event and ta da - Richard and Ann Stanley became my dear friends!

 

Earlier this year, I went to work part time at the Mandarin Museum and Historical Society.  Talk about unexpected blessings.  Sandy Arpen and the Board of Directors there have been so welcoming - and I love working with the volunteers and then Keith Holland introduced me to a squirrel and a ship that sunk - and suddenly I have a new appreciation for nature and  history.

My family teases me about the fact that I meet someone one day and am having coffee with them the next.

 

It happened again a few days ago.

 

I was at a CarePartners Conference on the UNF Campus.

 

Fingers busily typing a text, concentrating on what I absolutely had to tell my friend, I barely heard a woman ask "Is this seat taken?"

 

"You must be a very busy person", she said.  I must have seemed very rude.

 

I put my cell phone away and we exchanged niceties.

 

Karyn is a retired nurse and was at the conference in search of some CEU points.  Or so she thought - until she started telling me about her husband who is ill...and she realized she was really at this conference because she is a caregiver.

 

"I'm probably here because I need a friend"

 

Cha Ching - are there any words I would rather hear?

 

Hum - I found a friend and guess what - so did they!

 

 

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