A  little over a year ago now, I reconnected with some of my best friends from grade school, and we’ve been meeting every three or so months since. I still marvel at how it came about and the richness it has added to my life.

One day, I was in Pier 1 and heard my maiden name called. I turned around, and there was JoAnn. She said, “I don’t know if you remember me, but….”

I’d have known her anywhere.  She, like I, was a little older, a bit more zaftig than when we used to play, then pal around together, but there was no doubt of who she was.

Next, we reconnected with Donna through facebook and started meeting every three to four months at restaurants in Geneva, NY, the  halfway point between Rochester and Syracuse, where we now live. In many ways, we picked up where we left off, oh so many years ago when we went our separate ways after high school.

I don’t know if they experienced the same emotion, but at first I had a sense of loss at there being a gaping hole in the quilt of our shared lives. As stories were shared, though, new threads were woven and the quilt is becoming whole again.

Yet a piece was still missing. Yesterday, Sue, the fourth member of our friendship circle, was added thanks to JoAnn’s dedication to tracking her down. We’d found the missing fabric!

Each time we’ve gotten together, I’ve been surprised by how often one of our mothers is evoked by another in our group to make a “guest appearance,” in spite of the fact that they are, sadly, now all gone.

Comments such as “Oh, I loved your mother’s golumpki,”  and “I told your mother she made the best picnic lunches ever and she was so surprised,” or “I was touched that your mother always remembered I loved her sloppy joes and always  made them when I came over,” and “Your mother was always so welcoming…” are laced through the conversations each time we gather.

Growing up, I’m not sure any of us realized the role our friends’ mothers played in our lives, but clearly, they were invisible threads that helped bind the quilt of our own rich friendship.