Gary is an old friend – I met him in 1996, a year before I met Jett. There is a connection there – I met both due to my membership in the local chapter of Parents Without Partners in Burlington MA. Gary was President when I was Treasurer. A year later Jett wandered into a PWP dance and… well… so began 23 years of love. Gary was dating a lovely woman named Barbara at that time who, sadly, succumbed to cancer before her time. Then Gary and I played in the same softball league in Massachusetts for several years, during which time he met and married Jane, also a lovely woman.
But we drifted apart. He stayed in Massachusetts while I went roaming about the country and eventually landed in Florida.
I take this trip down memory lane as a way of saying that he found me again! I got a call from him last week. Yes, he and Jane were still living in Massachusetts, but they were visiting Venice FL and maybe we could get together? Well, yes, Gary, we could.
And we did. Jane and Gary drove down from Venice, I cooked some tacos and we – Gary, Jane, Marlene and I – sat around for hours “catching up” as old people are wont to do. I gave them a walking tour of my resort (a nice, long walk that Rusty loved). And I took some photos.
It was truly wonderful reconnecting with an old friend.