Annie

“Some friend I am,” Annie said on the phone one day, then chuckled. “I never call you.”

This was the way it went; I called and left messages, sometimes to hear later that she’d been ill or had just been busy with her family and her life. I had so much to learn from her about living life to the fullest, in spite of limitations. In spite of those gaps of time, our friendship remained and we picked up each time where we had left off.

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When Annie’s mother was very ill, she had told me about visiting her Mom in the hospital. I saw the obituary in the paper and knew that I needed to go there and pay my respects.  When I arrived at the visitation, Annie was surprised, but grateful.

“You came!” she had said, as though she was surprised.

Grief will do that.  I’ve learned too that when I have lost someone I care about, it takes only a small act to bestow love and caring  into that friendship when it is most needed.

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When I started writing and my work was being published, Annie took notice. She would ask me from time to time what I was working on, whether it was devotionals I was writing for Eternity for Today or something else. She was excited and happy for me when my first book was about to be published.

Annie had hopes of being at my launch on July 13th 2011, but  she couldn’t promise since she was having cataract surgery that day. As it turned out, she was not able to attend, but I knew that she was there with me in spirit and would have come if she had been able.  She made a point to come for a visit a few days later and for a copy of my book. She had photos of a trip she had taken up the Rockies and the Columbia Ice Fields. There were places she wanted to see  even if her husband was not able to go on the trip with her. We had much to catch up on that day.

Sometime later, in a phone conversation, she said that she had read my book and enjoyed it. She added that Rachel’s boyfriend Tim was also a writer and that she had told him about my book. “I told him he should talk to you,” she had said.

As it turned out, I met Tim, who was now Rachel’s fiance, at the visitation at the funeral home. Rachel said to him as we stood there together, “This is Mom’s friend. She’s a writer. And she’s published!”

We shook hands and agreed to talk more about writing at some later time. Tim smiled and agreed. Having spoken briefly to each member of Annie’s family, I said, “See you tomorrow,” and moved on. More people had arrived to pay their respects and I took some time to look at photos and talk with a few others.

Tears weren’t coming right away, and I guess I was not the only one surprised by this sudden turn of events. Yet if the heavy rain that day could say anything, it might have represented the tears and grief that would be expressed by the family and so many others at Annie’s death. My tears were yet to come, though she was in my thoughts nearly every minute.

A promise of photos was helpful too, for I had none of her except for the family photo in the church directory, and I did want to have one to commemorate her in the blog post I planned to honour her with.

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The last time Annie and I saw each other was a soup supper hosted by our church during Lent earlier this year. We’d met at the previous service at Reformation.

“Come to our church next week,” I had said. “We’ll be hosting.”

Annie came indeed and she was there with a smile on her face, as was usual. She had found our church and made it in time for supper.

When she was at the front of the line where we were serving the soup, there were four to choose from.

“I have to taste your soup,” she said, and she did.

We didn’t have a lot of time to visit that evening since I was on duty with soup and helping out with clean-up, but  I thought she looked quite well. We hugged when we met and always hugged again when we said good-bye, even if it was only minutes apart.

That evening we promised to get together again soon, but it didn’t happen. It was a visitation and funeral instead. Not really what either of us had in mind, I’m sure.

Part 3 to come

photo, courtesy of my friend’s family