My Friend Alice...

 

 

 

"I was blessed to know her - blessed to grow up with her - blessed to reconnect with her later in life"

I knew her since the earliest primary grades. Oh, she was not my favorite for sure. I told her that in the past few years. I always referred to her as the "curve wrecker". She was always wicked smart in grade school. Made the rest of us look less than ordinary. But I still always liked her. There was just something about Alice that was very likable.

She was in many of my classes in primary school. She was in my confirmation group at church. She was with us until the high schools split. She ended up going to the "other" high school, but still kept in very close contact with her class mates. She came to most every high school reunion, even though she did not graduate from our high school. She was still one of us. Many of us knew her and liked her. We remembered her.

Alice continued her high grades through high school and went on to college. After college, she taught music at a very prestigious college just south of town. She loved her job. She still came to our reunions and enjoyed meeting the people she grew up with. There was nothing snobby or aristocratic about Alice - she never changed from primary school.

She and I sat with each other at our class 60th birthday get together as well as our 45th reunion. We really did enjoy each other's company. Last year at our 45th, I teased Alice about still being in the work force. I told her to retire so she could be like the sloth I turned out to be. She just laughed and told me she loved her job, she loved her students, and maybe when she was 65, she might retire. We agreed to have the same discussion at our 50th reunion, as it seemed like every reunion, Alice and I sat together for a while.

That will never happen. Alice died on October 11th of this year. I don't know how, I don't know why. All I know is this - I grew up with Alice and we became adults together. We were always friends. We never talked politics - it really did not matter. All I know is this about Alice - she was nice and she was my friend. We would talk about a great many things, mostly growing up together. That is all that mattered. What united us so outweighed what possibly could have divided us. She is gone way too early, and I will miss her.