Lost, But Not Forgotten Friends

I finished listening to a great book, The Midnight Library, recommended by my friend Suzanne. In it the protagonist is able to visit other lives she might have lived if she had just made one different choice or another. You can imagine how many choices we each make everyday and how if we changed just one of them we might lead a totally different life.

I loved the book, although I am not one to have remorse over a path not taken. What the book did do for me is make me wonder what happened to people I have known over the years, but lost track of.

Suddenly, I was washed over with names of people I haven’t seen, heard from or perhaps even thought of in years. It started with my fifth grade friend Gayle Hemingway, whose mother taught piano lessons in their living room. I always wanted to take piano, but we did not have one at home until the day I went to boarding school, when my mother bought herself a baby grand. Talk about timing.

Then there were two favorite teachers. Dale Stoelting, who was both my fourth and sixth grade teacher and Ruth Farrell who was my seventh and eighth grade art teacher. I would love to see both of them.

The next person who came to my mind was Lori Hand, a friend from Wilton who went to Kent school with my friend Tom Hurdman. I lost total track of her once I went to college. We spent everyday together for a couple of summers.

Then I thought of a Washington friend, Felicity, who lived next door to me in DuPont circle, my first year there. She was an English Barrister, who came to do some work for a year in Washington. She hardly had any furniture in her apartment, but had a big Irish Setter dog.

I am normally good at keeping up with people, but before there was Facebook and the Internet it was just harder. What I really wonder is if I have crossed paths with lost friends and had not realized we were in the same proximity. It is not like we go around with a big name tag above our head. Sometimes I wish we did. I would love to talk to old friends just to compare memories and see where they ended up.