Traveling...and winding down Part VII Friends

We moved to NE Ohio from California in September, 1987.  Many things have remained in the past, but not the friendships with special people.  Even though we were far away, we stayed in touch through the years, sharing our journeys through child-rearing, health challenges, and more.  

We were happily able to meet for lunch on Monday with Daychin--at her workplace in one of the Stanford Medical Center's vast complex of buildings.  We met in 1983/84 in a support group, Touchstone, for families having a child facing serious illness.  While few of our children had the same diagnosis or problem, we all faced many of the same challenges.  In our case, a daughter with a serious heart defect and complications to the spinal cord after surgery meant many issues had to be dealt with over a long period of growth and development, adaptation and acceptance.  Daychin also had a daughter (close in age to Nathaniel) with a serious birth defect, with the added complication of single-parenthood.  Coming together around these issues was just the beginning; Daychin and I shared many of the same attitudes (and not least, a sense of humor that's often the best 'medicine' for life's realities.)  

Grayer and a little battered, perhaps....but still smiling!

Barbara is another long-time friend and faithful correspondent; she is the mother of Nathaniel's 1986 classmate Joseph at the Palo Alto Friends' Nursery School.  We shared many of the trials and travail of rearing sensitive boys to adulthood.  Don and I were enchanted by the backyard transformation that Barbara designed (no more need for the swing set, needless to say.)  A fountain is the focal point of the lovely retreat.  (I very much regret not taking a photo!)   We walked past Friends' School (good old Quakers are still going strong!) and our one-time abode to a pleasant cafe for a delicious lunch. 

It is a joy to know I can now picture Barbara in this setting when I think of her.

And that was our last day to spend in Silicon Valley.  We joined Natty and Karen after doing some packing.  I had brought along my dry ingredients for pizza dough and a pizza pan, so Karen and I collaborated on a pizza.  I'm trying now to recall what we put on it, but all I can be sure of is the goat cheese...which was delicious!  

The next morning we loaded the car, checked out of the condo, and drove away toward our next destination:  Altadena (next door to Pasadena, of Little Old Lady fame.)  The only way to get over to Interstate 5 was to go sort of around our elbow as we left the area.  Four or five lanes going the other way were bumper-to-bumper with stalled traffic.  I bet that the jam would last for 5 miles, while the DHubby bet on 15.  (It lasted for 7 miles.)  Glad we were going the other way.