Here's to the Class of 1968!

Back in the summer of 2013, my phone rang. It was high school classmate asking about our 45^th reunion. Although we had never been friends or hung out, I remembered her. At the end of our conversation (which I recall was quite long and filled with laughter), I asked if they needed any help. A few days later, I got a list of people to call, and over the next two weeks, attempted to track down and capture these classmates…only one of whom I knew (we had a class of 500+.) It was one of the best moves of my life.

That September, we all gathered in a hotel ballroom and got reacquainted with some and acquainted with others. A bond was formed that defies description. These great, wonderful goofy, men and women have become part of some of my most cherished memories the past three years.

Three of us bodacious ladies, live in a triangle, five minutes from each other and have for nearly 20 years without knowing. We decided to meet for lunch each month. Those monthly lunches have grown and moved locations, but all for the good. High school definitions of ‘friendship’ were immediately erased, and as we add to the group, we have more fun. The angels, devils, brains, popular, unpopular, and the unnoticed, have all melded into highly entertaining, bodacious, fun as all get-out 66 year olds. Some have great grandchildren, some never had children, but we all keep in sometimes daily touch, and love on each other’s offspring and furbabies.

We band together like no one’s business when one of us or ours, needs prayers. We are a fierce group of prayer warriors. Fierce. We have hula hooped outside of an Olive Garden. We have cried over the death of a parent, a friend, and furbabies. We have supported each other through thick and thin, taken countless photos, and exchanged enormous amounts phone calls, texts, FB messages and tons of hugs and kisses.

In September 2015, some of these women and their husbands, joined some of our male class members and their wives on our first annual Fun Run – we met from all different points in Branson Missouri, some on motorcycles, some in family vehicles, and had a completely wonderful weekend. Dinner on Thursday while watching a Chiefs and the Royals in a sports bar and grille was followed by caravanning to Eureka Springs, Arkansas on Friday. Saturday was spent touring Rock Lane Lodge and the golf course and just noodling around the sights outside of Branson, after which a classmate who lives there, hosted us for a wind-down evening of coffee and pie from their beautiful deck and patio. After a wonderful breakfast Sunday morning, we all headed back to our respective homes, phones and camera full of photos, and lots of memories to share. We are hooked. We’re doing it again this year.

The fellowship of this wonderful group of people is incredible, and when the large group of us join hands for prayer before our meals, you can feel the love and respect and thankfulness flow thru your fingers. We might have been nerds, outlaws, or whatever back in the 60s, but today, we are people who have lived great lives and are truly thankful for all we have earned and been given.

I am so thankful for answering that call three years ago. So very, very thankful. I love you guys and gals.