Another Bend in the Road…

A few weeks before Easter, I heard it was happening again, another pair of friends are moving, not far, but about an hour, away.  We shouldn’t be too surprised. “Downsizing” after your kids graduate is common in our area, as is moving to a favorite vacation spot (miss you already, Beck and Mike!) or returning to a place you love that’s also near grandchildren (miss you too, Margaret and D.), or moving back home to be near parents (still miss you, Liz and T.), as we did long ago.

It’s different with Cathy and Bill…we’ve just been friends for so long!  We have attended the same church since our grown kids were little, making lots of memories.  At the Valentine and Halloween parties our Sunday School Class did for the kids, Bill and another dad held up a broomstick with “dangling donuts,” holding it lower for the “itty-bitty’s” like my youngest, and holding it extra high for Bill and Cathy’s son, the tallest boy.  (Our daughters’ art projects made at those parties, Valentine folk & pipe cleaner spiders, finally fell apart two years ago.  They were thoroughly enjoyed.)

Bill and Cathy joined the choir as soon as they joined the church – we waited until our kids were a little older. If we needed to know how to pronounce Latin or Italian in choir, we just asked Bill–much better than asking SIRI, as you usually got a funny joke or informative story to go with it.  Cathy, our friend Debby (now back in Canada–miss you too!), and I seemed to alternate leading the music for Vacation Bible School, long after our kids were participants, until a new music director and his music teacher wife joined our church about eight years ago.

Bill and my husband have collaborated a few times on woodworking projects, sharing home ideas and repairing wood trim in the sanctuary.  It’s safe to say we’re all GA Tech fans.  What we really love, though, is dogs…Airedales at their house, Labradors at ours. For many years, we lived a block away from each other, petting dogs, admiring lawns, and enjoying neighborhood gatherings. We always had plenty to talk about!

Cathy and Bill were active participants in Dinner-For-Eight, the supper club I organized that encouraged the various demographics of the church to mix, mingle and have fun together.  As with any church,  there’s committee and “Session”/board work to be done, and the four of us have been involved with that often as we were needed, but on Sundays and most Wednesdays, we were there together sharing Worship, Sunday School and Choir.  How many people do you see every week, usually twice a week, for more than twenty years?  Not many.  My husband said, “It’s the end of an era.”

God Bless You, Cathy and Bill, as you move into your new home,
(with room for dogs, woodworking and great sewing spots!)
We’ll miss you more than words can say.