Friends

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Friends

Days of Reunion at Homecoming
(For the "Girls With Grandmother Faces")
(Playing ~ "Friendships")

It has been said the average person is acquainted with from five hundred
to two thousand people. Of these people, we are lucky to count twenty-five
of them as friends. Of the twenty-five, most people can say two or three
of them are close friends.

Now, I'm not going to sit down and count how many people I actually claim as acquaintances. It wouldn't be possible, even if I would be foolish enough to try.

However, I do have a file of names, addresses, and phone numbers of a group
of gals who became friends in the fall of 1949, when I first went to college.

Several of us now have e-mail addresses and communicate on a regular basis. Those who do not have e-mail addresses have a buddy that does, and a network is in place.

There were many years when we had sporadic or no contact with each other.
We were busy with families and careers.

In 1993, I returned to the campus for Homecoming. I had been on the campus several times, but mostly as a parent, rather than a former student.

After only a few minutes of talking and remembering, the bond of friendship
was even greater than in former years.

Some of us had been through times of great grief and stress. We now had the maturity to know from experience that life is not always as we would have planned it.

Those of us who travel from a distance stay in the same motel, and the atmosphere
is similar to the old dormitory on campus that has long since been replaced
with newer and more modern facilities.

In 1995, one of the gals issued an invitation to several who lived in the same general area to come to her home while her husband was out of town attending a convention.

That started a tradition for what we now call our Spring Fling. Since then,
every April, we have gathered in several of the homes in Tennessee,
as well as North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

One beautiful summer day at noon, we filled a table at Miss Bobo's
Boarding House in Lynchburg.

We call ourselves the "girls with grandmother faces." That has been shortened
to GWGF. We have our own shirts with these letters embroidered on them.
The head of the bald eagle, the mascot for our beloved college,
also graces the front of the shirt.

We each own our own Ty beanie baby, the eagle edition called Baldy.
We renamed them with some connection to our life while in college.

My eagle sits on a small shelf just above my right shoulder in my computer closet.
I call her Pella. Her birth certificate is framed and hangs above the shelf.
Pella is short for a capella choir.

My grandchildren think it's hilarious that I own a beanie baby and give it
a position of honor in my small home office.

I hear some of my Springfield friends and neighbors talk about spending time
with friends from college days. These occasions for being together become
dearer as the years go by.

Some of these friends have experienced the loss of a spouse, the loss of a child,
a painful divorce, serious health problems and various traumas in their lives.

A quote credited to John Winthrop stated, "We must strengthen, defend,
preserve and comfort each other. We must love one another. We must
bear one another's burdens. We must not look only on our things, but also
on the things of our brother. We must rejoice together,
mourn together, labor and suffer together."

I have come to realize the most important things in my life are my faith,
my family, and my friends.

In fact, the above quote is very similar to what the Apostle Paul told his readers
in Galations 6:2, "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will
fulfill the law of Christ."

Stephen Ambrose has written in his new book Comrades, "Friendship is different from all other relationships. Unlike acquaintanceship, it is based on love. Unlike lovers and married couples, it is free of jealousy. Unlike children and parents, it knows neither criticism nor resentment. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on a contract. So is marriage. Parents are bound by law, as are children. But friendship is freely entered into, freely given, freely exercised. Friends never cheat each other, or take advantage, or lie. Friends do not spy on one another, yet they have no secrets. Friends glory in each other's successes and are downcast by the failures. Friends minister to each other, nurse each other. Friends give to each other, worry about each other, stand always ready to help. Perfect friendship is rarely achieved, but at its height it is an ecstasy."

In Springfield, I have some friendships like this. It is a wonderful feeling
to know there are those who love me, warts and all, even when there are times
I don't deserve it.

This weekend, I will be in the mountains of East Tennessee for the seventh straight year enjoying the beauty of nature and the joy of friendship.

My spouse is welcome to go, but he chooses to stay near home, hearth,
family, dog, church, and his own bed.

Besides, who in their right mind would leave home during the World Series?

He is, however, perfectly willing for me to have this time with my friends
from college days.

He knows, without a doubt, he is my best friend on this earth.

~ by Marian Mason Bibb
Recollections and Reflections
for the
Robertson County Times
October 13, 1999

~~~

Thank you, Marian, for your permissiion to reprint your beautiful expression
of the friendship shared by the GWGF.

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