A gift

I came across this pillow case today while cleaning up a closet.  I'd forgotten I had it.  It was made for me by a friend I never met.

Back in my calendar-making days, she was given one of my calendars as a gift, and she wrote to thank me and tell me how much she liked it.  I was at a low point right then and she seemed to be someone I could connect with.  So for the first time in my life I put myself out there and asked if she needed a friend.  It turned out she was also in need of a friend, so our Email correspondence began.  For a long time we wrote about once every couple of months and exchanged gifts at birthdays and holidays.  She is a marvelous craftswoman, and her gifts were hand-made for me - this pillowcase, a hat, a lovely lacy shawl  But we were both pretty low-energy then and family difficulties became overwhelming for her, so after a while our correspondence came to an end.

It's nearly ten years since we drifted apart, and since the sister who gave her the calendar is a friend of mine I've been able to keep track of her life a bit since then.  I know she has made some difficult decisions we talked about, and that she is now in a much better place in her life, and living in a better climate as well.

I do miss her, and I enjoy looking at the gifts she gave me.  But ten years is a long time between Emails.