Photo-a-Day - June 2012 - Day 30: A Friend

Photo-a-Day - June 2012 - Day 30: A Friend

It is hardly fair having to chose one friend as I am blessed by having several very good friends.  However, I chose Antonia as she is the friend I've known the longest since moving to California.

Moving to California from Boston in 1975 was a very difficult, painful decision.  I had never been here and knew no one other than the man for whom I was going to work.  However, I had a relationship there which, although not a bad relationship, was one with no real future to it.  So I packed my, then, few belongings, my cat Pamela and flew to San Francisco.

In 1978, the company for which I worked, expanded and we hired Antonia.  Tall, redheaded, smart and very nice, and we became friends.  That we have stayed friends all these years is really more to her credit than mine.  Anytime I'd start to drift away, she'd pull me back.  It's an unusual friendship, in some ways, as it's not so much a got-out-and-play friendship, as someone with whom each of us is comfortable and and talk.

Interestingly, for the past 31 years, we've lived within minutes of one another, but it was only with my move in 2002, that we really became close.  In fact, it was at the end of move day.  Everyone had gone and I found a container of homemade soup by my door from Antonia.  When I called to thank her, she sensed I was feeling very much alone and a bit down.  She asked whether I'd like her to keep me company until I was sleepy.  I don't think I could have said "yes" any faster, and there she was.  And there she continues to be; my friend.  Thank you, Antonia, for never letting me drift away.