I was filling up my bird feeders this morning, sitting in the warm sun, wondering how it was possible I had been out of high school for 50 years. My high school class celebrated the 50 years last night. I didn’t go to the reunion but enjoyed seeing every one in the class photos. As I cut off the top of the bag of bird seed I saw one of my friends get out of a car that stopped in the road and run up into the yard. I knew she would come. She had visited me before, many, many years ago when she was home from Colorado.

We had the best time sitting on the porch together, regaling her handsome fellow with our childhood escapades. I remember she had the most intriguing attic bedroom, all the slants and angles of the ceiling in her room made for an interesting place to talk and tell secrets. She asked what had happened to all the chestnut trees that used to line the street in front of my home and remembered my unicycle we rode between the chestnut trees. She was a cheerleader and I was in the band.

We worked at The Roanoke Leader together during college summers and drove the same cars, Cutlass supreme t-tops. I think our cars were both maroon colored. We stayed in publishing, her typesetting took her to Boulder, Colorado, where she’s made a happy life for herself, retiring from the University of Colorado. My newspaper work took me to Russell Corporations’ in-house publications in Alexander City, then back home to Roanoke 45 years later as a widow.

She delights in the snow, like we did as youngsters, watching out the windows for the first flakes. She remembered standing with me at the school windows watching the snow fall when we were children. I never fail to keep up with her snowfalls in Boulder, comparing her snow with the few flakes I see here in Roanoke. And she remembers me when the first snow of the season kisses the ground white in Boulder. She hadn’t changed a bit — the beautiful smile, the clear sparkling eyes, the genuinely warm personality, just herself but now a grown woman. Her visit warmed my heart, put a smile on my face, gave me some more memories to cherish. When she said, “I don’t know if I’ll ever visit Roanoke again,” I thought, “Yes, you will and you’ll come to see me.”

Friendship is such a beautiful thing and certainly a gift from a loving God. A true friendship delights the heart and soothes the soul. No matter how many years have gone by the connection is still strong. “The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense,” Proverbs 27:9. When they pulled away, waving out the window, smiling a good-bye, I thought of the words of the children’s song. “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. A circle’s round it has no end that’s how long I’m gonna be your friend.”

Thanks for visiting, friend, and safe travels back home. Hope the snows of Colorado bring you joy this winter.

“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” — Thomas Aquinas