Old Friends, Some Gone Now — An Enduring Gift
Eleven smiling faces, including my own, captured in a photo 24 years ago.
It was a Saturday afternoon and we were enjoying a late lunch at the legendary Berghoff’s in downtown Chicago. My friends had gathered for a three-day weekend to celebrate my 50th birthday.
The echo of laughter from that weekend still reverberates today. But as I look at that photo, a shroud of sorrow covers me — I no longer know the joy of celebrating life’s passages with five of those cherished friends. By cruel circumstance, one by one they have entered a world beyond my reach, leaving behind only the essence of their being.
Despite those heartbreaking losses, a cadre of friends continue to bless my life. In many respects, their friendships are a reminder of a time and place in my life. With some, I share a lifetime of history, and now find ourselves traversing the depredations of aging.
I have friends who are like planets, having captured me in the gravitational pull of their orbits, where I joined a “Rat Pack” from which a new cohort of friends evolved. There are those with whom I have shared road trips and discovered the diverse beauty and expanse of the West Coast, while with others I have wandered the halls of history and art while exploring the amalgam of culture and ethnicity in the densely populated East Coast. My life with friends in the Windy City was the adventure of a lifetime.
Some friends have introduced me to their unique history and culture, broadening my worldview and inviting me to share in culinary experiences that have enlightened my palette. There are some whose Christmas cards are the first to arrive in my mailbox with all the news of the past year. Periodic email messages keep me informed in the lives of others, and I exchange daily text messages with others.
My friends are enduring gifts that have spanned 60, 45, 30, 25 and the last eight years of my life. Regardless of the time that has passed, I am comforted to find the true friends in my life have remained the same, whether I last saw them 20 years ago or yesterday — caring, supportive and generous of heart. When I think of my friends, I am reminded of the Anais Nin quote: “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
My friends are the axis of my world as I rotate through the seasons of life.
Toni Piper celebrates all her friends in Independence, Missouri.
