My Friend Norma

I met Norma for the first time in August, 1991. In fact, it was either on or near her birthday, which is today, August 6. It is also her husband, Vince’s, birthday, as well as my ex-husband, David’s. Because the three of them shared the same birthday, we went over to Norma’s house to have birthday cake and celebrate the three birthdays. We were new to the community, David having been assigned to the Methodist Church in Hampton, VA, in late June, and I hadn’t made any friends there yet. Norma and Vince were members of the church, and somehow in conversation with their new pastor, they learned that they shared a birthday with David. David wanted me to meet Norma, so they planned for our visit to their home.

When Norma met us at her front door, I felt like I was greeting an old friend, someone I’d known my entire life. There was no introductory hesitance of circling each other, scoping each other out, or tiptoeing around each other. We were immediate friends. As Marina would say, we are “Old Souls” (see my blog entry about this subject). Norma served us a slice of delicious strawberry cake that birthday afternoon. When I asked her if she’d share her recipe, she readily agreed, went into the kitchen and returned with an index recipe card. On it was written “Betty Crocker Cake Mix.” Our friendship was sealed with that recipe.

Norma was my friend during the most difficult year of my life, the year my marriage was seriously unraveling. Her doors, both at her house and at her office at Christopher Newport College, were always open for me. She was never judging, always listening, and tirelessly providing me with an anchor to steady me through those stormy days. She even donated blood for me when I had to have surgery the spring of 1992, which I considered the ultimate in friendship. The following year after David and I officially separated, Norma was the one who went with me back to the parsonage and helped me pack up my personal possessions. She gave me advice on what to take and what to leave, since I only had the back of a pick-up truck to carry everything. I don’t know how I could have done it without her help.

During the past fifteen years, Norma has been a loyal long-distance friend, and we have seen each other on a few occasions. Her friendship extended to Brian, who was her student assistant when he was in college at Christopher Newport. I always felt so good knowing that he was under her watchful eye as well as having the time of his life working in her office.

This past winter, Phil and I met Norma and Vince for dinner at Provino’s in Snellville. They were traveling through Georgia and stopped at Stone Mountain for a couple of days. When we saw each other at the restaurant, the ten years since we’d last seen each other melted away, and these two Old Souls were together again! Time evaporated as we talked, laughed, sympathized, and generally caught up on ten years of life. It was hard to say good-bye. As we hugged, I wanted to cling to her and say “Come home with me!” Once again our lives crossed paths and then took different directions, but our friendship remains and we will always be ready to pick up again where we left off when we see each other again.

Thank you, Norma, for being my friend. Happy Birthday!