I Just Called to Say………………

Last week I called one of my friends in the town where we lived until a year and a half ago. She had left me a message a few weeks earlier but I knew we had a lot of catching up to do so I waited until I was sure I’d have time to devote to the call. Three older people in my previous neighborhood had died over the past three months, plus one younger woman, killed when she was hit by a car. Cancer got the best of another friend in a different part of town. I know I’m getting to the age where that happens more and more but some days I want to tell the universe, “Just stop, wlll you?!? Give me a break from losing people!” One of my friends told me she’d gone to so many funerals lately, she felt she could be a professional mourner. I remember one time I saw a long line of wailing and crying people, dressed in ceremonial clothing and following a funeral procession in San Francisco’s Chinatown. I found out there are indeed such things as professional mourners and I was told it must have been someone important who had died, to have so many in the parade. A couple of days ago my husband found out a childhood friend of his had died three years ago. He hadn’t seen him in a long time but nevertheless, it was sobering. I want to make sure I appreciate the people who are important to me………………..which brings me back to the phone call with my friend who, it turns out,  is great at that. We talked for an hour and I got filled in on all the news. We hung up and two minutes later, she called back. “What if I never get to talk with you again,” she said. “I forgot to tell you I love you.”

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