Sweetest Memories

Sometimes the sweetest memories are the simple things, especially time with our Best Mommy Friends when our babies are born, growing up, and even when they leave our nests and strike out on their own. Sometimes we need our Best Mommy Friends even more at those sad times.

One of my dearest Best Mommy Friends was a new AF bride as I was, back in 1963, at KI Sawyer AFB, Michigan. We’ve kept in touch through the years, no matter who lived where, beginning with our shared lives for several years at KI Sawyer, and then keeping in touch through Christmas letters for oh, so many years.

Now that the kids are grown and we’re both grandmothers, our paths crossed again over the past few years, as one of her daughters moved to the town where we live … and now my BMF and I visit back and forth in person once or twice a year.

I can truthfully say I’ve had the sweetest memories with this friend, Gail, as she has on a number of occasions gifted me with her much-beloved Guava Jelly, from Palmetto, Florida, near Bradenton, where she and hubby, Roger, are from. When we first met, the fact that I was also from Florida seemed to cement the relationship on those cold, snowed-in days in Upper Michigan so long ago. We Florida people had to stick together.

Just yesterday, thinking of my pending trip down to Riverside, CA in mid-December for a short visit with these dear friends, I found I could not throw out the last bottle of Guava Jelly from Gail.  It simply meant too much.  Off to Michael’s I went for ribbon and artificial flowers that would not wilt and die over the winter.  Nope.  I needed lasting flowers. Not some wimpy daisies that would fade.

And there it sits now on my kitchen counter, my squatty little jar, filled with bright, comfort-giving flowers ~  my Palmetto Guava Jelly jar with its pretty bow and colorful flowers.  Such a sweet memory of happy shared times.  I love it because it brings back so many memories ~ the sweetest of all!