It has been a long day......

We did one of our marathon visits to the Lower Mainland today.......
Our reasons for doing so were twofold.....to return my brother-in-law to his home after a week with us.....and to connect with a friend from my past.

It is the latter that I write about now.....

It has been 33 years since I have seen PMc. She was my room mate and travelling companion when I was studying in England in the late 60's and early 70's. We were close....as close as any two friends could be. After I finished at college and came home, we kept a somewhat infrequent correspondence and then after a time, it fizzled out as our lives progressed and got busier. A few years ago, I did some research on the net and came up with her email address. So I emailed her and asked if she was who I was looking for....ie...are you the PMc that was in London in 1969 attending......blah blah etc....and wonder of wonders...I got an answer!

I replied and I think we had about 2 emails and then they too fizzled out. I managed to get her on my MSN contact list and chatted somewhat hesitantly once.

So....about 2 weeks ago, out of the blue, I got an email from her saying she is going to be on a flying visit to Vancouver and can we connect. We could and we did......today.....it was wonderful and heartwrenching.......
Two hours is definitely not time enough to catch up on 33 years of a lifetime. However, I did find out enough to know that we have in many ways followed a similar path.....and I want to continue the contact.

So....on the drive home to Kamloops, I decided that it was so much better to curl up with a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of wine and READ a snail mail letter, than to read an email on the computer.

Tomorrow, I shall start a written correspondence with my friend and hopefully it will be like in days of old....where you don't just necessarily talk about what you're doing and who's doing what, but you also discuss ideas and exchange thoughts on everything that matters. Whether she will answer in the same vein I have no idea....but I'm willing to give it a try.

I also have made a mental list (I'll make a written one tomorrow) of people I would like to write to in non-email form......and as my mate is going to be down helping the travelling offspring this weekend (yes he DOES get to go down there again, only in his truck this time), I will start my writings. Not all can be written in the same way, but I'm interested to see what kind of response I get to an actual letter on paper. I believe that I will also put my travelling offspring on my list as well....beware T&D!!

I will not be writing these epistles by hand.....I am unable to do that anymore.....so I will type them in script and print them out and then sign them, no doubt with handwritten PS's.....

I'm looking forward to this as not only a writing exercise, but as a way of keeping in touch that seems to mean so much more than words on a screen, even though they start out that way.

Slainte!!

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