Unforgotten Friendships

My walks around my little town has given me friendships that I would otherwise not have if I didn't walk. I had the pleasure to have met an older couple that lived in the house in these photographs. As I was walking by, it started with a comment she made while she was doing some gardening in her well-kept yard, "My goodness, you are dedicated and faithful to your daily walks!" On another occasion, I had my dogs accompany me on my walk and of course they started barking at her. I immediately used what I had learned on the dog whisperer and put it into affect by saying, "SHhhhh. SHhhh." Without the dogs obeying my command, the lady started laughing as she recognized it right away and said to me, "So ~ your not the leader of the pack either." She also had two dogs that barked and were unruly. That is how our friendship grew.


When we learned that my husband had cancer, my walks almost were non existing. I just wanted to be with him. I noticed as I drove by on my way to work that the house was closed and showed no signs of life. A year had gone by and I seen two women that I had never seen before loading up their cars. The ladies were there off and on for a month. As I was driving home from work one day, I saw the ladies and decided to park my car and introduce myself and ask them if everything was all right.



I had learned that their two dogs had died several months apart and the man had passed away. I couldn't believe it! The lady was their daughter and she was packing up the house. I asked her what happened to her mom and she went on to tell me that her mom had to go into a home and passed away also. I couldn't believe it! I couldn't contain my tears. The daughter's expression on her face watching me looked as if she didn't understand how I couldn't have known. I had to explain to her how I met her parents and why I stopped walking. I apologized to her for my reaction because learning about this, I was in complete shock. They were all in good health. How could this have happened? I then started thinking about how my life had changed in one year of time. It was a sobering thought.


During this last Spring, as I would drive by her house on the way to work, you couldn't help but notice all of the flowers. The whole lawn was covered with golden poppies. They were popping up everywhere! It would leave a smile on my face knowing how she loved her flowers and cared for her yard. She would have been pleased. As the season went by everything dried up. There house now sits lifeless. There are boxes stacked up by the front door waiting to be filled.