Does anyone besides me run frantically to the computer when they get home or wake up in the morning? I am an optimist to begin with, but with email I always dream of getting a glut of messages from friends, family and long lost aquaintances. I actually have a story about the latter, that is the psuedo culmunation of a goal I set for myself some 20 years ago.
Between the ages of 9 and 10, my best friend and co conspiritor was Julie Terry, my across the street neighbor on the Navy base. Dad referred to her as "Cool Jule". She was taller and thinner than I was, but we shared the same blonde hair. We also were in the same 4th grade class. Ms. Strycharski even mentioned her by name on "comments" section on my report card.
"Jennifer would perform much better if she weren't so chatty with her friend Julie." Sheesh. I was already making straight A's and in the gifted program. What more did she want from me????? But I digress.
I left Washington in July of 1985. Julie and I stayed in touch by mail for a couple of months. She had a series of traumatic events including the death of her boyfriend. After 6th grade began, I had lost track of her completely. I made several attempts to contact her but was never successful. As with prior attempts I have undertaken to find long lost friends, Julie had a pretty common name. And to make things worse, her father's name was John. Even with the advent of the internet and my growing understanding of it, I tried phone number lookups and still had no success.
Every year that has passed has planted fear in my heart that I would never find her, or if I did, that some tragedy had befallen her.
I was playing around on Classmates.com not too long ago. On a whim, I looked her up on the schools she would have gone to had her Dad stayed on that military base. Unfortunately, there was no Julie, but I did see a name that looked familiar.
Lindy Terry. In the dark recesses of my mind, that name rang a bell. Julie had a sister named Lindy. She graduated high school the year I met Julie. So the adventure began.
I looked up everything I could for free on Classmates. I saw that Lindy put a lot of info on the site, including that she lived in Vermont. And that she worked in the healthcare industry. With that information, I set out on a mission.
I found Lindy. I sent her an email. She responded.
Julie is alive and for the most part well. She has had her share of tough times. I have had some trepidation about contacting her. I want to get in touch, but we really dont know each other. Just those silly times from being children together. I anticipate writing another letter to Lindy and asking for the email address or a telephone number.
I feel kinda like Inygo Montoya from The Princess Bride. The guy who was on a lifelong quest to find the man who murdered his father. At the end of the movie, after he has gotten his revenge, Montoya is left with the strange emptiness of having accomplished his goal. I suppose I am afraid of contacting Julie because I won't have her to wonder about anymore. It almost creates a void for me.
But I must press forward. Perhaps I can find another adventure to keep me busy for the next 20 years.
