Just over 16 years ago I left my home in South Africa and moved to Brisbane, Australia. For those of you who know me, you will realise that this was the start of a lot of moves and travels. This meant that I lost contact with a lot of the people I had known in my childhood and early adult life.
At the time Elizabeth was just 2 years of age and I did not know a soul in this big new world! I decided to join the local health centre for both company and of course child-rearing information and started going along on a Tuesday morning. On my very first visit, I sat next to a beautiful lady with an accent that I recognised - she was from Sunderland, UK the place where my Mom and Grandparents had been born. Her name was Colette and she had a lovely daughter Lara, who was just 6 months older than Elizabeth. The two girls hit it off and so did us Mom's and over the next few years we spent many happy play dates together.
Colette soon added another little girl to her family and I had our son Matthew, we asked Colette to become Matthew's Godmother and she graciously accepted. Unfortunately, not long after this John, Colette's husband left his position at the university in Brisbane and they returned to the UK.
However, despite the years and the distance we have kept up a wonderful tradition of an annual Christmas letter. I always wait with anticipation as Colette has the most beautiful calligraphy handwriting and I recognise it immediately.
This morning there was a special surprise for me as I opened my morning emails. Colette has sent me a 4 page epistle with family news. I printed it off, the only way to read her letter and she said there is also a card with a CD of photos in the post, so I am looking forward to that. As I read all her news, I thought of all the years of friendship that we have shared.
Friends come in all shapes, some you see every week; others you talk to on the phone regularly; or email everyday; some you even get to spend time with on holidays. And then there is a friendship like I share with Colette, a 'once-a-year' friendship, something special and valuable and I will always treasure it.
The Joy of a Christmas Letter from a friend is better than all the gold in the world and once more we connected together and shared a special moment. So until next year, I will hold all our news and then just before Christmas we will write again and share the friendship we started 16 years ago.
1 comment:
Ahhhhh ... what a lovely story and what a wonderful friendship, Beverly. I confess to being curious about the news Colette has sent. I would love to be in on the news. :)
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