Until recently, I had a friend whom I’d never met. We’ve been Facebook friends for longer than four years, and we text numerous times every day but we’ve never laid eyes on each other.

Now, maybe you also have friends that you’ve never met, that’s probably fairly common in today’s world with all the various electronics, but this was kind of a different friend. So different that one of my other girlfriends said I was nuts and she’d never do such a thing.

This is a bit of a strange, out of the ordinary but VERY true story. If you haven’t read the first part, it’s here amongst my blogs, titled “AND FINALLY WE MEET”.

Our meeting was originally planned for December with a luncheon date in Carmel.  However…..sniffling, sneezing, coughing, sore throats, headaches and ear aches had other plans for us. Sadly and very disappointed, we cancelled our December ocean trip.

Christmas and New Year’s Eve found both my husband and myself trying to recover from what the docs called…..a cold, a common cold, but believe me, there was nothing common about it.

But the last week of February, the three of us; Lobo my sweet husband, Rabbit, and myself headed west for an ocean “fix” and for me…..the long over due and highly anticipated lunch with my never-met girlfriend.

Oh….. did I forget to mention that this friend was my husband’s college sweetheart from the sixties?

Early into our friendship we found that we both had the same ridiculous sense of humor and always ready to tease. We text joked back and forth about when we’d finally meet and what we’d be wearing.  She was coming in big name designer clothes and I’d be decked out in diamonds and gold.

The plan was to meet at noon in Carmel Plaza. She’d be waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs which was the lower level. Lobo (my husband and her old boyfriend), would drop me off in front of the plaza at exactly noon and then disappear.

I’m not sure there’s anyone on this planet who loves Carmel any more than my sweet man so an afternoon of wandering that beautiful hamlet was like heaven for him.

When I arrived at the bottom of the stairs, there were people milling around but I saw no one who could be her.

Then I heard a voice. “Is that you?” I looked up. An adorable woman was leaning over the railing looking smack at me. I felt a huge smile take over my entire face and two women who’d never met were smiling, waving and coming toward each other.

I began up the stairs and she was coming down. We met halfway and a huge hug happened right there in the middle of the stairway.  When we  pulled apart and  looked at each other, we laughed and hugged again. It was then we noticed that a few people on the stairs had stopped.  They were standing behind us, watching, and smiling.  No one there knew our story other than what they were seeing, and what they were seeing was two very happy women. I actually thought for a moment that they were going to applaud. We apologized for blocking the way but nobody moved. I think they just wanted to stay and watch.

We moved off the stairs, stepped to the side and shook our heads in awe. The whole thing was crazy, we both knew that but we also knew that standing right there, looking at each other, were two women who’d built a friendship over four years, never seeing each other but sharing  back and forth feelings of happiness, sadness, frustration and constantly reminding each other that still, through it all, how very lucky we both were.

The restaurant she’d chosen for lunch was just steps away and perfect. It was small with only a few people at scattered tables.

We glanced at the menu and decided to share. I suggested she choose, I didn’t care what she ordered. I felt quite safe knowing that the two things I’d never eat (eggs and liver) a vegan would never order.

As we sat across from each other talking non stop, a strange thing happened. She transformed before my eyes into that 18 year old adorable girl and I could see why, all those years ago, my sweet man was so taken with her. I blinked and was brought back to the present moment and marveled at what a lovely woman that girl had become.

Sometimes meeting someone for the first time, leaves awkward pauses while each tries to search for something to say. That was NOT us. I believe that lunch could have lasted the entire afternoon with no lulls in conversation.

Earlier in the week, I’d thought about maybe taking her some sort of little gift but decided that was not a good idea. It might make her feel uncomfortable that she hadn’t done the same. So I dropped the idea.

Maybe half-way through our two-hour lunch she said that she had a gift FOR ME and began digging into her purse. DAMN I thought to myself, now I feel bad. She pulled from her purse a small box, the kind a piece of jewelry would be in. It was wrapped with a red ribbon and bow. As she handed it to me she said, “I hope this isn’t inappropriate.” My mind went blank. I couldn’t imagine what she meant. What could she give me that would be inappropriate? What on earth? For a few moments I just  held the small box in the palm of my hand, and looked at her with a big question mark face. I slowly removed the ribbon still looking at her completely confused and lifted the little lid.  Underneath the cotton covering was a very delicate gold chain. I remained puzzled.  What was this? I gently lifted the chain from the box and then saw a small pendant dangling from it. I held the delicate,  gold pendant in the palm of my hand. There were three tiny letters stacked vertically one on top of the other.  “R J F” I read aloud.  “Robert James Fone.”  She was frozen, watching my face for a reaction. I didn’t quite understand and she could see that.

Her beautiful gift came with a story….. Her college boyfriend (my husband) gave the pendent to her SIXTY years ago. She said for some reason, which she didn’t quite understand, she’d kept it and now she knew why…..she’d kept it for me. I was feeling lost for words, me, lost for words, imagine. I fumbled, trying to find something to say. I was stunned. She was handing over to me, a sixty year old memory, a sweet, treasured memory I would assume. I pushed my chair away from the table and with a tear escaping my eye, I bent down and gave her a most grateful hug, right from my heart.

I collected my composure as well as I could and carefully tucked the tiny box away in my purse.

Next we decided to walk Ocean Avenue and shop. We never stopped talking.

Eventually, I texted my “Uber man” and within a few minutes he pulled up next to us standing at the curb.

She extended her hand through the open car window, reached for his hand and said with a smile “thank you for bringing me such a wonderful friend.” It was a poignant moment for me, watching the two of them after all those years. And then with one of his great smiles he responded,  “and thank you for being such a good friend to her.”

Good byes are always rough for me. I promised we’d be back before too long. We hugged one more time, smiled and I waved as we pulled away from the curb and headed up Ocean Avenue.

Before we reached the motel, I wanted to stop at our favorite ocean spot in front of the lighthouse. I was still bubbling over with excitement. As he’s often done with this particular subject, my sweet man just shook his head slowly from side to side, eyes slightly rolled upward and a smile on his face that melts my heart. Yep, the entire thing is a little bit crazy and a whole lot weird.

After we were stopped and looking out at the water, I brought the box out from my purse and handed it to him. “She gave me a gift.” We both kinda chuckled at that because I’d been in such a dilemma about bringing HER a gift but decided against it.  He was as inquisitive as I’d been. He lifted the top from the box and uncovered the cotton and there it was. I saw the look of confusion on his face that she must have seen on mine. “You gave it to her SIXTY years ago. She said she wasn’t sure why she held on to it but now she knows, she was holding it for me.” I could see that he was traveling back in time trying to remember.  We sat for a while, watching the waves hit the rocks and explode and remembering the seven heavenly years we lived there and the hundreds of dinners we brought down to that spot, eating in our car and calling it our favorite restaurant with the best ever view.

The “light” finally went on and he remembered the pendant.

The story went like this….. My husband is not a joiner. He just doesn’t. I didn’t get to wear his varsity jacket because he didn’t have one. He didn’t have one because he chose not to join the varsity club.  His college girlfriend didn’t get to wear his fraternity pin because he didn’t have one. He didn’t have one because he chose not to join a fraternity. He remembered feeling bad about that so he had the pendant made for her. Hmmm, he never bought a jacket for me!

During our four hour ride home, I kept wondering to myself, why did this happen? Why did our universe pull us together?

Perhaps my girlfriend said it best….. “how remarkable the whole thing is, what a strange synchronicity. Some things are meant to be and this for sure is one of them.”

I carried Rabbit from the car into the house. When he saw where he was, HOME AGAIN, he hopped from my arms. He twirled and jumped with joy. He “binky” hopped through the house happy to see all his familiar surroundings. He did a few high up in the air twirls. I thought to myself…..if I were able, I’d twirl too. It was such a wonderful few days on the coast and the highlight was LUNCH IN CARMEL.