So
I am out in the garden picking radishes (those Rat Tail radishes really do put
out in the summer heat, record heat and I just canned 14 jars of pickled
radishes) when Morg hollers out the door that I have a phone call. I thought
"Who the heck would be calling *me* on a Sunday morning?" When I get
to the phone and say "Hello." I hear "TJ?" I used to go by
TJ but it has been a long time and as I was running though my mind who would be
calling me that name, I came up with *one* person just as she identifies
herself. Yep it was her. It was quite a surprise and we were on the phone
somewhere around two hours talking and still didn't finish catching up but we
had to hang up.
I
am thrilled she called and I've really needed a friend recently just to talk
about the ups and downs of life. The
email "support group" I used to use let me down real bad a few
months back. I had been growing away from them for a bit, maybe less growing
and more depression had to do with that since my sabbatical, now that I recall,
took place during and after cancer treatment. But then I started interacting
more and things seemed to be fine with the group. The group owner's wife had a heart attack and he understandably was
away from the list for a short time and people quit posting. I wrote a post
that he would not want that and to keep the posts coming so at the time I was
being quite active in the group. About 3 weeks later I made a post and wrote about finding out my favorite aunt
was dying. Since the list owner's wife was in the process of dying herself I
harbor no ill feeling toward him whatsoever for missing the post, I know he
would have said something. (I think he is the only one that reads my blogs and
is hearing this stuff for the first time, but he has probably been wondering
anyway why I have disappeared from the list.) But not one person made a
comment, not one "I'm sorry" or "What a drag" or "Damn
that sucks," nothing. I realized I had not really felt
"supported" by the group at all since I had been back, it was friendly
but… I sort of have had a hard time even
reading the posts anymore and have not posted. A support group isn't any good
if there is no support for one anymore. A lot of the people had changed, maybe
I was just too odd for an odd bunch.
So,
having an old friend look me up was really nice. She and I had been through
many things, good and bad, together. We knew each other since I lived in Bailey
CO. I don't remember the exact year but it was around 1989 or 1990. We still
have more catching up to do.
5 comments:
Wow, I'm so sorry. Yep, I totally missed the post about your aunt. I'm embarrassed about that because I try really, really hard to give hugs, or say something when something like that happens. Again, I apologize. I didn't know that lack of response is what has kept you away from the list.
However, I'm really glad that friend from the past got a hold of you and you two were able to reconnect.
*hugs* because of my lack of not supporting a friend when she needed it most.
See, that is the thing, *you* had something much bugger going on in your life at the time and I did not think you were even reading the list regularly. It was not *your* lack of response; I know you would have responded had you read my post. I also believe if I would have contacted you directly about it I would have gotten that hug even with all you were going through. You actually did support me during that time, you were just unaware of it.
Well, I'm glad you felt supported by me. I'm going to go back and check for that message. Was that in January? *hugs*
Why?
Well, to make it easy I will forward it to you. I took out the group designation in the heading so it wouldn't file to the groups folder if you still keep your email sorted that way.
BTW, my aunt died on May 9th.
Why? To read it and see if I remember it, which I didn't. I responded to the email.
There's a question in it that you can just ignore because you mentioned it here. I am so sorry, she sounds like a beautiful (in every way) woman. *huge hugs*
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