The Joy of Being Found

Tomorrow I leave for Phoenix to spend three days and two nights with a childhood friend whom I have not seen or talked to in 40 years. If I'm going to Phoenix in July this has got to be very important to me. Her name is Cathy. I know, it looks funny without the "k". Late last year and early this year I kept thinking about her. I Googled and found nothing. I didn't know her married name which turned out to be so common that I never would have found her. And I was spelling her maiden name wrong or I would have found her brothers.

Turns out she had been thinking about me during the same time frame. My last name, however, is not owned by thousands so I was easily found on Google. She found my phone number in the Bay Area and called it. I don't live there any more. When I moved from that address I kept my office phone number and had it forwarded to my new office line just in case a former client tried to reach me. Over the past three years it has paid off. But it also worked for me to be found by Cathy. She call about six weeks ago. I was in a rental car driving from San Diego to El Centro. When I'm out of the office I forward my office line to my cell. So when she called, the number she dialed was first forwarded to my current office and then on to my cell phone. When she told me her name I nearly drove off the road. What a gift from the Universe.

Once I got home from that trip we talked for nearly two hours. Then she told me her husband was going to be away the Fourth of July weekend. While I want her to meet my partner and I want to meet her husband, she and I just need to yak away for a couple of days non-stop. Then we can get to know the guys. So I suggested that I visit her while her husband is away. With a free ticket from Southwest, a Super Shuttle ride to her house, and an air bed to sleep on, we will be together once again.

I have known Cathy since I was four and she was five. Her life changed dramatically when she got polio at age eight. This was pre-vaccine. I remember her being gone for a long time and then being home in bed and having lots of surgeries. Her family was so nice. In fact, looking back I would like to have been adopted by them. She went to parochial school: I went to public school. She went to Catholic colleges; I went to the University of Minnesota. The last time I saw her was at the wake for her mother. I was about 22 then. She was devastated by her mother's death at such a young age. I knew she became an occupational therapist and moved to Phoenix. But that information is at least 35 years old.

So tomorrow we begin a new adventure. When two people send the same signal to the Universe and the Universe responds...well I can't even describe how that feels. It's like all this time we have been moving toward each other without really realizing it.

So, I thank the Universe for bringing us together. More to report when I return next week.