Reconnecting

Somehow my recent trip to West Virginia to visit J, who used to work for me, has spawned a reunion of those of us who worked together 25-30 years ago. J has built a website just for this purpose. I seem to have gotten suckered into hosting said reunion in my house.

So now the task at hand is finding all of those souls who have gone their separate ways, moving to other cities, even other countries; changing their names; growing older every year.

The ad hoc organizing committee assigned me the task of finding Linda, a girl with unlimited energy and a genuine concern for everyone she met. We worked together, traveled together, and played together for several years until she and her husband moved to NY. We were still in touch in 1983, when J’s doomed marriage got started. I remember driving to NY and leaving our husbands and children in LI, while we drove up to Connecticut for the wedding.

I saw her maybe once after that and then we simply lost touch. So today when I Googled her name I was most surprised to find her at the same address on LI. It also indicated that her 6'1" 175-pound son had played lacrosse for Harvard. He was a 4-year-old boy with Linda’s boundless energy and a lot of physical dexterity the last time I had seen him. Her older daughter was cited for some sort of medical research. Was she a doctor? How had so much time elapsed?

I dialed the number, expecting a message machine, but instead getting a bubbly female voice that sounded just like Linda used to sound. But instead of Linda, it turned out to be Elizabeth, her daughter who is now 17 whom I have never met. She dutifully said her mom couldn’t come to the phone (turns out she was at work) and filled me in on her sibs. She took down my contact info and agreed to pass it on to her mom.

So here I sit hoping for a call from Linda. We have a mere 20+ years to catch up on. I am positive she will be the same effusive person she was way back then. But I wonder – Does she color her hair? How is her marriage (to an ambitious guy who looked a lot like Dr. Zhivago)? Did 9/11 touch her family in any way? What path did her career follow?

A network of old faces and names is gradually starting to build with this reunion project. This year seems to be all about reunions for me. How very interesting!