Sacred Stories
My husband and I were out enjoying our afternoon at a local winery. When we left there, he suggested we stop by a brewery on the way home. This brewery is not our typical, “let’s stop” place and we’ve never been there on a Sunday, but the day was a great day to be out. Getting out would lift my spirits.
He knows that I’ve been missing my friend who transitioned quite a bit lately. She was my bestie for like 18 years, and she passed several years ago from colon cancer. Sometimes the missing can get intense.
Another friend of mine has suggested that I try the Bloody Mary at this brewery, so we sat at the bar and I ordered one.
A woman sitting next to me started up a conversation. She asked me how my Bloody Mary was and told me how she loved one of the beers there. She had come from out of state to get that beer before it was gone.
We exchanged names. Her name was the same as my friend!
I had to smile at the timing of this meeting. My husband understood the importance of this as well. He brews beer and years ago had named a wheat beer after my friend and her miniature donkeys. She loved having a beer named after her, and we all laughed about how cool that was.
This woman was really nothing like my friend, other than she sounded very independent and matter-of-fact like my friend had been. During our conversation, we had so many things in common and I had the same feeling that I had when I first met my late friend. Both times, I had a knowing, “I have to be friends with this person!”
The meeting even got more funny as this new friend asked how my old friend had spelled her name.
She looked me in the eyes and said, “My name is spelled the other way with an “ie.”
When I first met my old friend’s sister, she had introduced herself as Kelli with an “i”. My first thought during that meeting was an internal chuckle and that she had two eyes. I didn’t choose to say that at that initial introduction, but from that moment on whenever I referred to my friend’s sister, I always said, “with an i.”
My new friend’s reference to the spelling of her name really hit home with me. I felt my old friend might be setting up this meeting, and it definitely was emotionally uplifting.
Before we left the brewery my new friend asked me to put her number in my phone so we can get together again.
Pretty cool…Hello, Old Friend, and welcome, New Friend.❤️
(Shared by a friend on Facebook.)