My Friend JoAnn

JoAnn

I just spent 3 and a half hours on the phone with my friend JoAnn. What's really sad is that we haven't talked to each other in 3 years. We've both been too busy with work and every day living.

I called JoAnn this morning because I'm planning a trip to visit my daughter in Washington and JoAnn lives in northern Oregon so I figured I could see her too. We had the best talk on the phone. Maybe the fact that she lost her job in March (which I didn't know until I called) and I lost my job yesterday had something to do with it. Maybe since we both have more time on our hands we gave ourselves permission to take time to talk. I don't think most of us realize that the curse of e-mails, text messaging and social networking is that we don't really talk anymore. We tend to forward someone else's cutesy joke or just post a quick comment on someones "wall", but we don't really communicate.

JoAnn and I met when my son was 2 years old. I was a single mom going back to college and she was taking the same entomology class I was in. We hit it off from the start and have been friends ever since. We both enjoy gardening, herbs, chickens, rabbits, doves, preserving food, sewing, etc. We've been through a lot. We've raised our children. She has grandchildren and I have great-nieces and nephews. We've had marriage difficulties and health problems. We've lost parents to cancer. Through thick and thin we've been friends. My son turns 31 tomorrow.

Now JoAnn has lots of friends. She's just that type of person. But me, I'm more secluded. I have very few friends. So if I value this friendship so much, why have I neglected it. True, JoAnn lives a lot further away than she used to, but that's no excuse. Today as we spoke on the phone, we clicked again. There was no awkwardness (except when she answered the phone and didn't know who I was). We just started talking like we spoke to each other every day. Right before we hung up she said thanks for the call, it was like an early Mother's Day gift. Wow, that made my day. Friendship is precious and we shouldn't waste it.