Yesterday when I was working at my store I got a call from Amy, a friend from high school. She told me that several women were meeting at this great little coffee house down the block at 1pm and she thought I might like to go. Of course! So I walked 3 blocks in the frigid temperatures to meet up with them. It was great to see these ladies, most of whom I'd seen at our 20 year reunion last year, but there was one whom I hadn't seen since the 5 year reunion. It was fun to catch up with them, and one of them had a new 7 week old baby with her. It was her 4th, but I still get happy to see 39/40 year old women with babies.....that means there is still hope for me!
Today I went to church with my friend Anne and then we went to Panera afterwards for some coffee (decaf), bagels, and good conversation. I just love my friend Anne - she just gets me, and I get her. We both ramble on and talk about everything going on in our lives and we just enjoy each others company. Plus we are both crazy cat ladies! She has this little cat named "Gaston the Terrible" that she found as a stray. He's adorable, but quite the little terror, so she took him to church one day to get blessed. I wasn't there, but apparently he was dressed in a little outfit and he was blessed by the priest. She was hoping that he would become better behaved....but he didn't. We love him anyway, even though Anne has bite marks all over her arms. heee heee hee. Anne reads this blog too...I love you Anne!
On a more serious note, today is the 12th anniversary of the still birth of another dear friend's daughter Megan. January 20th, 1996 will always be seared in my memory. I was living in Spain at the time, and I was actually in Portugal doing interviews when Patty called me to tell me that our friend Ann had lost her baby due to a chord accident. I had seen her at Christmas and we took all these pictures of the three of us at a Christmas party with her big belly showing proudly. This was her 3rd or 4th pregnancy, the other ones she lost to early term miscarriages, so you can only imagine the devastation to lose Megan at full term. My niece Emma had been born on January 2nd, while I was home on leave from Spain. I was in the room when Emma was born and I cut the chord. Then 18 days later Megan died. For the longest time I didn't know what to say to Ann. I couldn't talk to her without crying. I wanted to go back to the times when Patty, Ann and I traveled around Spain (they both worked over there with me for a while), enjoying good food, wine and many laughs. I remember she called me a couple months after and I couldn't talk to her. I ended up going to dinner and having a few glasses of wine, and then I went back to the office and I called her back. She knew I had been drinking, but at the time I didn't have the emotional maturity to talk to her without some help. I was ashamed of myself for a long time, as always she was the strong one and I was the weak one. Eventually I would get strong and I learned just how strong when Patty was diagnosed. Ann went on to give birth to two more girls Grace and Mary who are now 10 and 9 years old, but she will always remember her first born Megan. To celebrate Megan's life, every January 20th Ann, her husband and daughters let go of some balloons and send them to heaven.
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