more re-connecting (lyn)

This past weekend, I was in touch with three once very good friends who have not been in my life for over 30 years.

Linda T

Out of the blue, I get a FB friend request from a woman I worked with in a prior life.  I was 24 and new in Chicago.  it was 1975.  I remember my interview at Continental Bank.  I wore rust colored corduroy pants.  I knew nothing.  Not even what to wear for a bank interview.  Surprisingly, I got the job.  I did HR work in a division called Trust Staff Services.  I became friendly with Linda T there (she was Linda G then, but married Henry T who also worked at the Bank).  Linda was also my first Black friend.  We argued passionately about being Jewish and growing up African American, and the differences and similarities between the two.  She also made me laugh.  Like me, Linda had a very low tolerance for things that were unfair, or didn’t make sense.  She made what could have been a boring job an incredibly good time.  I adored Linda, but somehow after I left Chicago in 1981, we lost touch.  This weekend she sent me a note that made me cry.  In it she wrote, “There are people who float in and out of your life and you simply value the time you had with them and then there are those people who leave an indelible impression with you and you were one of those people...”  I hope we are back in each other’s lives for good.

Amy and Evelyn

I spoke to both this week, after an absence of many years.  It was great to catch up on each other’s lives, and not dwell too much on our years as teens.

I learned of my friends’ marriages, divorces (in one case more than one), children, careers, and travel.  And in every case, unsolicited, each brought up weight.  One wants to lose 25 pounds, another has told people to “shoot to kill me if I am this size this time next year,” and the third says she has remained thin but lately has put on “a little extra weight.”

So after 25 plus years of not speaking, some reference to weight is brought up by all three.  I’m just grateful that I can honestly say that my weight is the same today as it was when I knew them.  That’s not true of my bra size, but fortunately that didn’t come up.