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Topic: Learning for Life (08/23/04)
TITLE: The Gift of Friendship By sue moreland 08/27/04 |
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I use to watch her as she walked to her school. She had on her cute little pleated plaid skirt, crisp white blouse and blue blazer. Mary Alice always looked so tailored and polished. I thought she was dressed just right and my wish was to be able to wear that perfect little outfit. I always had to wear the dresses my mother made and would loved to have been able to go into a store and try on one of those wonderful matching outfits. Just to own a store bought dress would be special. But, I had five sisters to share everything with, so “special” was something I did not often feel.
We walked on the opposite side of the street, never even nodding a hello. I often saw her sitting on her front porch reading or quietly playing with her toys, but we never spoke.
We became good friends when as adults we both joined a quilting club. There we really got to know each other because if there is one thing that goes on in a quilt club it is conversation. We find we have much in common and wonder at the thought that we had to become adults to be friends. Even as children we liked doing much of the same things. We are both fond of books and animals and working on hand crafts. We could have shared so much together.
She shared with me that she had had an older brother, who died when he was three. Because of that her parents were over protective of her and seldom let her go anywhere. Mary Alice told me that she use to watch me as I walked to school dressed in my beautiful homemade dresses. How she longed to be able to wear a different outfit everyday and not the stuffy uniforms she had to wear. And how special it was for my mother to have taken the time to make so many beautiful clothes . I laughed and told her what I always thought about her “matching outfit”.
I guess the part of our growing up that has become a real learning experience is that she told me she use to sit on her porch and watch as I played with my five sisters in our front yard and how very much she would have loved to have a sister or even a close friend. And there I was all the time. We could have been life long friends if we had just spoken to each other as children. We could have had a long list of memories together. But as kids we were so wrapped up in our own world that we did not see the “friendship” in our differences. It is funny how kids are. Or do we sometimes never learn about the great “gift” of love in the sharing of friendships with the people who live right next to us?