After several years of silence that started long before covid, I received an email from my only friend from our grade school years:
“I tried to get hold of you last summer. I had a heart attack June 29. I knew what it was and knew I wasn’t going to die. I took a quick shower , took a tums, and called 911. I sat in a chair at the front of the house with just enough energy to unlock the door for EMS but couldn’t get up after that. Young men came into my house and started fumbling with my breasts and I didn’t even have to pay them! I was stabilized in the ambulance and taken to ….”
She then had three stints put in her heart and has been recovering.
My response: “WOW!!! I cherish and treasure you.
“I, too, have had a heart attack. The week AFTER I had a stress test and the Dr said I was fine and my heart was good. It was the stress of the job I had. I felt the tingling in my arm, was still able to breathe, so I kept on walking in the back hallway – and had to focus on other things. TEN YEARS LATER (at least) I was undergoing tests to try out a new form of a a diabetes drug, and the EKG showed the heart attack. I guess I’m tough…
“I was afraid you had died…
“At our high school 50th reunion, I shocked a number of people, including myself. I had just found, so I took, my photo album of our 6th grade class trip. I also took a box of each one of my bound books and put it behind the album – look at one, you see both. Then I summoned (imagine me, summoning someone from school!!!) a frequent tormentor of mine to look at his photo in the album. Then, when he was there, I pointed to the box of my books and said: “Not bad for someone with dyslexia, ADHD, etc…. is it?”
“He was stunned.
“Now, we’re friends on Facebook…”
This happened last week. I was surprised at the timing of the prompt, so decided to submit this (edited for length because my emails can be l..o…n….g…..). I’m eager for her response. She lives five hundred-some miles away now, so I don’t know how often we may be able to actually see each other, but being in contact again, even by email, is pure joy.