A Package From Georgia...Years Ago

Have I written about this before?...I have checked my archives and I don't think that I have posted about it. It's been in my head for several weeks, and so I'm going to put it here...it's something that I don't want to forget and I would like my kids to know the story.

My backdoor neighbor, Ruth, moved away more than a decade ago. She's gone now...and I've been thinking about her lately and just how precious our friendship was. I didn't appreciate it so much, when we were neighbors, but since I've moved away from my old neighborhood, I feel the pain of leaving so many friends behind. I know how she felt, when she moved away...I've walked in her shoes now. She was such a generous person...always sending me things that she knew I would enjoy. I can appreciate now...her arthritic hands taping those boxes and taking them to the PO to be mailed. Hard work for someone her age. She would send things that she found at the grocery, that she didn't think our stores would carry. A salad dressing made with Vidalia onions, a caramel cake mix, little dainty tea cookies, a hot pepper jelly...so many things to list. We exchanged boxes of garden things too. I sent her some Queen Anne's Lace, money plant seeds, Japanese lantern seeds, and bunches of bittersweet each fall. One of her first boxes arrived soon after she moved. It was filled with holly to decorate for Christmas, rosemary branches, Christmas ornaments that she had made, kitchen towels, and tucked inside was a little book on friendship. We exchanged many little books like this. The book is pictured above. Now, I have to tell you a story about this book. I already had received this book for my birthday, from another friend. So, when I saw the book, I didn't even open it....just put it next to the other one on the shelf....and there it sat until a few weeks ago. I was dusting the bookshelves and picked up this little book and something fell out. Some rosemary and this sweet note. (I will cherish this note. I think that I am going to make a collage of things from Ruth, so that it will stay like it is.) We called each Sunday. One week she would call and the next would be my turn. When I met Joe, I was a little behind on my end of the phone calls. She called and wondered if I had been sick. I didn't know how she would feel about me remarrying so soon after my 1st husband's death....after all she was in her 80's. I decided to tell her...we talked for the longest time. She was always a person with a youthful outlook. Always interested in new trends and what was going on in the world. I shouldn't have worried about her reaction. She said, "Go for it!" and then she said, "I knew something was going on." I could almost see her wink. She was a special person...always thinking of others. Everytime I hear the song, "Georgia on My Mind," I think of her. A pillow sits on my rocker that she sent to us for a wedding gift...it tells of Spring and birds... The bluebird of happiness. I was just thinking about her this morning, when I saw a hummingbird at my feeder. She would have loved hearing about my hummingbirds. I wish that she had been able to operate the computer, after she moved. We could have communicated through that. She would enjoy reading blogs..Maybe she would have had one of her own. I think blogs can be a warm companion for people of a "certain age." I'm at that "certain age"...and blogging is a big part of my day...especially during the long winter. Comments from around the world make me happy. Maybe there's someone like Ruth out there, contemplating starting a blog...my response would be, "Go For It."

Balisha