Reply #9: Thank you, Jody -- you are so kind. I regret the brittleness of youth [View All]

[Radio_Lady]

which allowed me to send this sweet young man a letter signed "Take care" instead of "Love" and to do this while he was far away from home in Basic Training.

I still think of him when I speak the little bit of French that I do, or hear one of the older French songs from the 1950s and 60s, or one of the bands of the time. It should be interesting to see what he recalls and how he receives my apology.

Yes, we all travel on this time continuum together -- reaching out seems to be important to me at this time of my life and this summer in particular -- the summation phase of fifty years, I guess. Switchboard.com makes it possible to trace people, although I did pay $8.01 for an Intelius search (giving me a disconnected telephone number for my trouble!).

Last night, I also called a woman who married one of my friends from work in the 1950s. Regrettably, she and her husband lost a young son at age 15 1/2, when he was hit by a car driven by a drunken person.

We all used to play bridge together when we lived in New York and New Jersey, and I lost track of this couple years ago. Her husband died a few months after open heart surgery in 1985. He was apparently consumed by guilt at the death of their son. The good news is that a daughter, age now 30, survives. My friend never remarried, and now works in aids research.

I really hope to see this woman again. She stated she is coming to Portland to visit another friend, and it would be great to visit with her and give her a big hug!

Good night, my Internet friends.

Making peace a priority,

Radio Lady