Old friends

Last April, I was able to be a chaperone on a trip down to Columbus to visit the temple with the young women at church. After we were done inside, we took a few pictures, as it was the first visit for several of my girls ("my" girls).





While we were posing for photos, I noticed to my left a familiar face. A distant familiarity, but one I couldn't mistake. It was a friend I hadn't seen almost since our high school graduation. Thirteen years ago. In Oregon.

I kept glancing over, sure I was wrong. Last I knew, this friend lived in Minneapolis. Finally, on one of my glances, she happened to see me at the same time. She blurted out my name, and I knew I'd been right. We hugged, and had a brief five-minute reunion (my girls were hungry and we needed to get started on our 2.5 hour drive home).

It turned out that Malya and her family had recently moved to Ohio for her husband's work, and lived less than an hour from Columbus. Her parents were coming to visit in the fall, and they were all planning to come up to visit Kirtland on that trip. We talked about getting together and made arrangements to make arrangements.

Malya's mom had been my MiaMaid leader when I was a young woman. When I first moved to Oregon, she helped smooth the transition for me. Later she was called as the Relief Society president, and she helped me transition to the adult women's group when I graduated high school. Malya herself was a good friend to me in a time of need during our senior year of high school, and a few years later gave me some (at the time) unwelcome yet life-changing advice. I was so excited to get to spend time with them, albeit only briefly.

Randy and Katherine came at the end of October. We all got together for lunch at TGI Fridays and took some pictures afterward. It warmed my heart so much to be able to spend time with these two amazing women again.