Now that we were on the plane, I can tell you, that my feet, knees, and back hate me. We walked in, stood in line, walked up, across, down, over, up some more, and then once more over, to get to the gate. At 4:30 in the morning, I had a lack of sleep, lack of coffee, and a lack of food for this kind of journey. Oh well, I am looking forward to the end result. Let me tell you a quick story of a blossoming friendship.
2 years ago March, so March 2021, Chris took me on an 8-day cruise for my birthday and we went out of Miami to Labadee, (Royal Caribbean's private island) San Juan, St. Marteen, Antigua, and then back to Miami. When we cruise, we usually find the Facebook page for that cruise and then meet new people that, eventually, we will spend 8 days on a ship with. I had met one lady who was from Scotland but moved to Ireland a few years before. I have a family history from Ireland but we also shared a birthday! Well, sort of. Her birthday was the day we left, the 12th of March, mine is the 14th, just 2 days later. We connected and promised to meet at Sail Away and have a drink to celebrate her birthday and the cruise as well. The only thing I could remember about the last conversation was a picture of her husband in a green Irish shirt. She said, "I will be easy to pick out of a crowd, my husband will be wearing this"
Lo and behold, 10 minutes on the ship we met! We hugged, we chatted, we split up to check out our rooms, then we met up with them as promised at Sail Away. Or at least we were headed there but never quite made it there. It started raining so we stayed under the overhang and in the back of the ship area and just talked for over an hour. We were inseparable after that.
I have never enjoyed someone's company as much as I did theirs. I called her husband Thomas based on his Facebook name, the whole trip and then found out later he goes by Tam. Well after our trip, we promised to stay in touch.
We exchange holiday gifts, and we wished them happy birthday and anniversary, but alas, we have not seen them since March 20, 2022. They were going to go on this trip with us, and then they were going to meet us in Barcelona, but sick pups, weddings, and a loss in the family, they were not able to join us. BUT, they took the day off work, and drove 3 hours round trip to Dublin, to buy us a traditional Irish breakfast. The hugs were tight, the tears almost showed up instantly and the conversation picked up like we had just seen them yesterday. You can really tell a lasting friendship when you can be gone for 2 years and feel like you have never been apart. We made plans for 2025 when we come to see them again. Maybe this time for 4 days, not 4 hours, we hope, eventually we will have a bigger place to live so we can have them come to Florida and stay with us. Thank you Melissa and Tam for a wonderful, lasting, long-distance friendship! We love and miss you both!!
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