Best Friends Forever

Back in the late 60s Anna travelled from Australia to Santa Clarita to be a high school foreign exchange student. She very quickly became besties with a local native girl, J.R. They had many things in common. Both only had younger brothers (and needed a sister), their birthdays were only days apart & the list goes on. The two were practically inseparable and could frequently be found cruising Hollywood in a convertible Cadillac (proclaiming when smart alec boys would ask if they were driving Daddy's car, "Daddy does not drive. Daddy is driven!").

At the end of the year Anna went home, but they stayed close despite the ocean between them. Anna came back every couple of years to visit. When J.R. and her husband, Michael, had their first child (yours truly) Anna returned to meet her little namesake. She came to the U.S. again when J.R.'s second child was born, found love and moved to the Mid-West.

Over the course of the next decades of life (divorces, marriage, deaths, births and eventually becoming grandmothers) they used phone calls, cards, letters, and occasionally, precious visits to love, comfort & celebrate with each other.

In recent years, much to the delight of J.R. (and me!), Anna has found a special "friendship" with Michael (J.R.'s ex / my dad). Other than their beautiful children, J.R. & Michael's love for Anna is one of the few things they have in common. He lives in California, she in Kansas, but they speak almost nightly on the phone.

Saturday, Michael did something very nice for his ex-wife when he surprised her with a visit from Anna whom she hadn't seen in a few years. Here's how it went...