I’M JUST CURIOUS: Reunited…after all these years!

by Debbie Walker

A while ago I had the chance to visit with a cousin I had not seen in probably 30 years. It was such an amazing visit. There were no uncomfortable silences. We fell right into the same comfort zone we had all those years ago but possibly a bit more mature.

Lorna and I went through grade school together. She reminded me of the time our teacher, Doris Cookson, took us home with her for an overnight. We were treated like princesses that night and we enjoyed reliving the memory together.

We did some high school together until my family moved and instead of five minutes away from each other we were 15 minutes apart. Neither of us had driver’s licenses at that point.

Lorna and Basil got married and I was a bridesmaid. A bit after that I got married and moved away and we lost touch, so that was about 1970. Yes, that was a lot of years ago, like about 48 years ago actually. We may have seen each other for a few minutes at a time over the years, both of us on the run doing something that couldn’t be held off.

Her daughters have grown up without my meeting them; she saw my daughter and grandkids at mom’s Celebration Party on the 14th. Her husband died and I divorced mine. Lorna lost her sister and I lost a brother. She lost her parents and I have now lost mine. She stayed in Burnham and I wound up in Florida for 30-plus years. Life has a way of going on.

Even when I came back to Burnham it still took us some time to get reunited and reunited we are. We take every chance we get to visit. Lately we have been able to visit on Saturday mornings, have tea and we enjoy every visit.

It is one thing when you are related but the neat thing is when you really “like” each other, even as adults.

My reason for writing this in a column, aside from honoring Lorna and our wonderful reunited friendship, is to pass on to you what we have learned.

Possibly we all have someone we were close to at one time in our lives and then for whatever reason that relationship fell by the wayside. Life can certainly get in the way as it did with us. I am not saying each one would flow as smoothly as ours has but you don’t know if you don’t try.

If you have family or friends you have lost touch with over the years, think about reuniting. It may prove to be a very touching experience. Don’t wait for that proverbial family reunion at a funeral; it may be the wrong person dying. That would be so wrong.

I am just curious if you will try reuniting. It starts with a “hello.” Contact me with questions and comments at dwdaffy@yahoo.com . I love hearing from you! Don’t forget we are online too; we even have archives for past columns and such. Thanks for reading!