Trips Down Memory Lane

I have just waved goodbye to my house guests of two nights. If you are wondering why that would merit a blog entry, here it is. The guests were my high school sweetheart and his wife! They had just flown into Atlanta at the end of a 12-day Caribbean cruise and were visiting their way back to Westchester, IL by automobile.

Obviously, a lot of history has passed since my old boyfriend and I were an item, but there was still the potential for some tension between the Mrs. and me, especially in light of something I have been noticing in recent years. As a lot of the men I know age, they tend to become significantly more sentimental and they like to reminisce about "back in the day," recalling specific dates and incidents that included the two of us. Many women might find these trips down memory lane distressing, especially if they are feeling a little insecure about themselves.

But I needn't have worried, because this man's wife is the coolest, most secure and warm-hearted woman I have ever met.

We had met several times before, but only briefly and under circumstances like funerals, which don't lend themselves to getting to know one another. Over the years we developed the kind of friendship that can exist between two women who have once loved the same man -- phone chats comparing notes sometimes, sharing secrets that only we might have in common, that sort of thing. She is a talker, so I usually spend most of the conversation listening. But this time was different. This time, the Mrs. sat back and watched the dynamic between two people who knew each other at a much different time in their lives, who were clearly no longer interested in each other on a romantic level, but who immediately slipped into their familiar, bantering style of communicating.

At the end of the two-day stay, the Mrs. said that she had learned new things about her husband by watching him interact with me. She said she understands clearly why we would have been a couple while growing up because we had so much in common and were alike in so many ways. She hugged me hard as they prepared to leave and told me she loved me. And as she shut her car door, I overheard her say to him "She's my girlfriend now!" What a great woman.