For nearly six years,we've lived in a subdivision of newly-built homes. We've met all those who bought their houses at about the same time. Some have been quieter folks who stay to themselves, some are in everyone's business, some are neighborly, and some have become our best friends.
We've seen babies born to some families. We've watched young ones become teenagers, and a few who've left for college. We've seen the angel of death visit one or two homes. We've seen jobs found among some,and some who have lost their jobs. There have been some familes who have moved out of our neighborhood to other new residences, and we've seen a few who have lost homes to foreclosure in the failing economy. As in all neighborhoods, many changes come and go.
The latest change is one I never wanted to see. Our best friends who live next door have sold their home and are moving back to 'cold country'. Our lives have been woven together since before we met, when my brother told me that they had bought their place, and we were still living in NY,while waiting to move. I wrote them a letter and mailed it to my brother to deliver for me. Netty answered it and mailed a response. Letters went across the miles until we met face to face in October of that year.
We knew,on the spot, that the Lord had brought us all together. There also were so many similarities in our lives... we both have daughters named Amy. Netty and I both are partial to cobalt blue, with red being a close second. We even have the same pattern of Pfalzgraf ironstone...and to beat that, we both have the same pattern of china!
While those things are incidental and perhaps coincidental, our friendship has been forged by other things. Each of us feels that we would be 'there' should the other need us. It's been proven over the last few years.We've shared it all...tears,laughter,family things, life, in much the same way that a family is 'there' when needed. Even our kids...at least some of them, have formed friendships where they visit from eastern Long Island to New York city....and when their son is here to visit his parents,he has gone to Georgia to visit my daughter and her family there.
On Wednesday, our times together...dinners at each other's tables, or at a restaurant, impromptu day trips or porch visits...will end. No,the comradary will not stop...our love and caring will not cease. But things will change. We'll stay in touch through letters, through emails, on the phone and on Facebook.....and we'll visit. They will still have their Amy here in the area, and we both have kids in NY. We'll visit Iowa when it's not the dead of winter...their visits here will probably be at that time, in order to escape the snow and the cold.
I wish they could stay close by forever,as they thought they would when we first met. But life has brought a different turn, and they must follow. We will stay here, reporting to them on the neighborhood goings-on, and on the young couple who have bought their house and will make it their home. We will attempt to be good friends to the new neighbors, but they will never fill the empty places we'll feel with the leaving of Dan and Netty.
