A SPECIAL MEMOIR

Today I feel compelled to write a memoir.  There will be no instructions or memory joggers.  I may break a few rules but this comes from my heart.  This memoir was originally meant to be an eulogy for one of my oldest, dearest friends.  She has been on life support for several days and the doctors little hope for recovery. But her younger son would not give up until he knew for certain his Mother was being kept alive only by mechanical means.  He called yesterday to say that he believed he had witnessed a miracle.  His Mother opened her eyes, and even smiled.  We know that she has a long way to go but as her son said, we'll take whatever we can get, one day at a time.,

A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND, AILEEN

It was late spring,(the end of May to be exact) of 1958 in Washington, DC.  A young woman, still a girl, really, walked a few blocks to the "car barn" to take a trolley to a new job.  She felt safe on the trolley, it would go only where the tracks took it.  The shy country girl hoped she wouldn't have to pull the cord for her stop.  She needn't have worried, several riders seemed to be going her way.  Seeing a large building come into sight, she knew this was  the place.  National Geographic.  Her heart skipped a beat as she entered the front door all the while keeping an eye out for the office.  Soon she had filled out the necessary papers and was on her way to her work station,

This country girl felt a little intimidated when she walked into the huge room with many rows of desks almost touching each other. One sole desk sat facing the rows where an older woman was peering over her spectacles perched near the end of her nose.  She reminded the country girl of a
school teacher she had in fifth grade; any minute she might say to  the bodies occupying the rows of desks, "take out pencil and paper and write one hundred times, 'I will not talk in class.'
But she didn't.
Introductions were made and one woman remarked, "Aileen is absent today.  I know you will become friends when you meet.  I never asked her why she felt that way.
But she was so right.  Our friendship began the moment we met.  We introduced out husbands and they became friends.  We were together every week- end.  Her husband was an MP in the Army and I knew they would be gone in a short time.  I tried to put it out of  my mind.  We visited every free attraction in Washington and there were lots of them.  We had little money for entertainment, so we made our own.  One of us had learned to play Canasta and we taught the other three.  We spent many Saturday evenings playing until the wee hours of the morning. One week-end we went to Ocean City and Rehobeth Beach in their Ford convertible.  Only one of us made it to work on Monday and that was the MP!  We had terrible sun burns!
After awhile Aileen left National Geographic to work as a typist at the Library of Congress.  I was lonely at work without her so we made it a point to get together more often during the week. Then there was a change in my life.  I became pregnant and had morning sickness that kept me from going to work. The older lady with the spectacles at the tip of her nose did not understand the needs of a pregnant woman!.  I quit my job and stayed home trying to stay busy.  I knew the day was coming soon when the Heralds would be returning to Indiana and Aileen would not be here for the birth of the baby. There was more to that statement than I could ever have imagined.  I gave birth to twins two months early.  My friend and her husband returned to Washington to see the babies after they came home from the hospital in March.  We made them "unofficial godparents."
The years rolled on and I had two more children and after several years of trying she and Elliot had two sons.  We developed a tradition of visiting them every Thanksgiving--that meant the old West Virginia Turnpike! A snow storm coming or going or both.  Now, is that not proof of a true friendship?
In 1969 a few days after returning from the Indiana Thanksgiving trip we received a call early one morning.  A nurse in a hospital in Louisville told  us our dear friend, Elliott, had passed away from burns received in an accident at work.  Aileen needed us and to please come as soon as possible.
This blog is getting too long and I will close by saying , there were long periods of time we were not in touch but whenever we were it was just like we talked yesterday.  Many stressful and emotional events have taken place since that day in 1969.  There have been divorces, remarriages, serious illnesses, grandchildren, and deaths of parents, great grandchildren  But nothing has weakened the friendship that was forged one day in May, 1958.  I'm praying for your healing, my friend.  Darlene