So...where've you been?

It's been over thirty-two years since I last talked with Bonnie. A chance Facebook encounter reunited us and we have spent the last couple of weeks sorta catching up.
Funny thing was, we picked up our conversation as we left it all those years ago, as if time were suspended and the intervening years were only a wisp of memories. We found that we shared many commonalities, even after veering off into different directions with our lives.
Bonnie was my 7th grade sweetheart, my first true love. We met at Hollis Junior High School (no middle schools back then) in Mrs Robinson's homeroom. She was my deskmate in homeroom, as well in as Mrs Robinson's science class. I'll never forget the first time we held hands...a boring science movie playing on the 16mm projector, a darkened room and a 2-seater desk with those little cubbyholes for your books at lap level. We both reached into the same cubbyhole at the same time and clasped hands.
I was in heaven! She had hair as long as Rapunzel, the most sparkling blue eyes I'd ever seen, and to a gangly seventh grader, she smelled real sweet. Most days after school, I would walk her home, taking the mile-long walk very leisurely and lovingly. We sometimes stopped by the Drug Store at Judson Crossing for a soda, although I seldom had money to buy anything. The romance ended, alas, with a misunderstanding - probably just as well as she and I would attend separate high schools, leading to new relationships. Although we had ended one relationship, I always felt that Bonnie was a friend. We would stil talk on the phone about new girlfriends/boyfriends, she took the time to tutor me in algebra and helped me pass that course and we kept in touch throughout high school.
Bonnie was (is) an excellent singer and, although I had never seen her actually perform, I always knew that she would excel in that area. I do remember a time when we were hanging out at her house on Virginia Avenue, circa 1974, and she informed me that she was singing in a talent show at school. Her choice of song was Roberta Flack's "First time ever I saw your face". We were in her room and she was rehearsing, the only time that I had heard her sing. I knew then that this girl had something, her voice flowing through her old home like an angel lightly touching the ground and then soaring again. I was taken with the sweet soulfullness of her voice, a controlled, emotional outpouring of love wrapped up in a song.
Fast forward 32 years.
I had often thought of Bonnie and how life had been treating her. As it turns out, a series of tragedies in the early nineties left her scarred, scared and having to be the strong one.
Our first phone conversation was polite and tender. We revisited each other's past and it was like hearing an old Sinatra album - filled with tears of sadness and joy, much laughter and sorrow, and the common bond of enduring the things that life tosses at us. One of the first things that I asked her was "recorded anything lately?", assuming that she had indeed recorded something. "I have a CD", she answered. "Please send a copy to me-and don't forget to autograph it for me please". We ended the conversation on a note of "great catching up...be well...hope to talk again soon".
I soon found that I could not get my fill of Bonnie. She sent me her CD and I plugged it into the CD player in the car and listened to it while I drove to work.
Awesome! I soon found myself listening to it everyday - a funky blues song followed by a soft, sweet song followed by yet another bluesy number - all telling of a love for God and from God.
Next I knew we were talking everyday. Our conversations would go on for hours. And when we weren't talking by phone, we were text messaging or communicating by Facebook.
And our conversations continue. Laura and I are planning a trip to Tennessee to visit my dear friend, allowing us to cement a relationship that started so many years ago. We have so much in common, so much ground left to cover and so many things left to do together.
I am blessed, fortunate and inspired to have her fall back into my life...and I'm sure that this friendship will continue for a very,very long time.
Thanks Bonnie.