Une Bonne Amie
Have you ever known someone that didn’t live near you, that you only saw once a year but somehow you knew each other so well it didn’t matter? When I was about 8, I met someone like this. She came from Canada every summer with her family for 2-3 weeks and while her father would fish all day, she was “stuck” at the beach. Sometimes it would be rainy and gross but he’d still go fishing and she’d be trapped. So I would go visit her and we’d take walks, swim, play, and just talk about everything. As the years went by, she came every July and I would look forward to it so much! The blueberries would be ripe and since she was taller and older, she could reach what I couldn’t and I loved that! A few times, she came with just her father, but mostly it was with her mother and sister and a couple of times with her brother and his family.
When she got married, I was pretty sure I”d never see her again, but she came that next summer with her husband! Then a few summers later with her first baby! Then a LONG time went by, her father stopped coming, and we sort of lost touch. 2 years ago, out of the blue, she showed up in my driveway with THREE sons! It was like she had been there just the year before. We picked up right where we left off.
I was excited when she emailed me 2 weeks ago and said she and the boys and her husband were coming down for the week. We went to the beach, though this time she wasn’t stuck there! We didn’t get to pick blueberries because they were already gone. We didn’t have endless hours together like we used to, but it was fun. It’s amazing to me that for over 25 years we have been friends but I’ve never been to her house, I never went to school with her or knew any of her friends, but somehow that didn’t matter.
I won’t be surprised if her parents show up in the next few days! Last time she came, right when she went home, her parents came to the Cape because they missed the old days!
August 21st, 2009 at 9:18 am
Wow, it’s amazing how long you stayed friends! I have a cousin who I only see twice a year if I’m lucky, but she’s still the closest friend I have! We e-mail constantly and call each other every once and a while, but it’s just awesome when we can see each other in person. We could probably just sit around and talk for hours without even noticing the passage of time!
August 21st, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Since we were friends long before email was available, we learned to make do with a few letters through the year (it’s more expensive to mail to Canada) and the yearly visits. We can pass time like it’s our job! In fact, what I notice now is that we have sooooo much we want to say and so many distractions that we hardly get in a word before they’re off to eat or it’s time for bed or they’re on their way back home already!
August 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
That is really awesome that you kept a friend that long. Just wondering, is she from a francophone part of Canada and does she speak French?
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
That is a GREAT question, seawolf! Yes, she is from Québec, Montreal, to be exact. Not only is she fluent in French and English, but also Greek. Her family is Greek. She was born in Québec but was raised for the first few years in Greece. When I was 8, I didn’t know what Greek was, I just knew that they rolled in and out of ENglish all the time. It never bothered me that they would have conversations that I couldn’t understand.
Now, she is married to a man from Greece, but their kids all speak French, English and Greek. One of her sons goes to a French school but the other 2 go to English schools. It’s amazing that they have that option. And that all of them can speak all three languages. It’s funny because they will often be speaking English but a French or Greek word just pops out because that’s what came into their brains first. I that hear from a lot of people who speak several languages all day long.
I often think that one of the reasons I love languages and feel so comfortable around people who are speaking other languages is due to the many summer weeks I spent in the company of her family!
September 9th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I haven’t but i wish i think thats kinda cool.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
That is cool my little cousin from Russia now lives in new jersey and i miss her so much!!!!!
Does your friend like Quebec and is she the friend who you said teaches like you do???
September 15th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
My friend that lives in Quebec doesn’t teach English. She is a math teacher. My friend who lives in France teaches English. Her name is Madame Kolendo.
September 16th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
That is cool maybe you in her should switch classes☺ Are you good at french math? Is it like ours or different? Are the numbers wrote like ours?????
September 17th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
No i dou’t have a friend like that. But awsome story about you and your friend. Did she speak french?
From
Tommy A
September 17th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
i have a friend whos my best friend and she moved away in 4th grade but she moved back here i was sooo happy!
September 19th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
ya,, are the numbers in french different from the numbers in english??
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:14 pm
when i read that i kind of laughed to myself! Thats cool you could stay friends for so long!!
November 4th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
that’s amazing!!