Renewing old friendships.

Whenever you have the opportunity to reacquaint with friends from your past it is a very important and wonderful thing to do because it brings you full circle with friends you have not seen in many many years and allows you the opportunity to catch-up and talk about things that you remember from those days and it seems time has not passed and for that brief time together it seems that those moments discussed seemed to have frozen in time and it seems like only yesterday we were living them.

I enjoyed an evening out at a friend's house from our high school days last night where we had an informal get together with some of our classmates and it was very nice. I had the opportunity to talk and share memories and look back at our year book and reminisce. It was nice to see that my friends all seemed to be doing well and were all happy to see each other and we talked and shared our experiences. We talked about our kids and our lives and our memories of high school and painful things as well. I was touched by everyone and was so happy to attend. I enjoyed talking about my family and boasted about my son and how lucky I am to have Maria and Matthew in my life. I showed some family pictures and felt good to see my friends from those special days of high school.


One of our friend's and his wife were deeply affected by family tragedy and I had talked to the wife as she revealed something very emotional and painful and I could not help but feel for them both as they had lost their 2 naturally born children due to illness at young ages and I felt very sad for them both and can not imagine the pain they feel and live with every day. They show such an inner strength and courage to continue on though they must deal with their loss every day. They are wonderful people as they have adopted their other children and provide them a loving and caring home. I was deeply touched by their strength, courage and their outlook. It really made me think and realize how people all have their crosses to bear and they try their best to keep their emotions in check and live their lives despite the pain they feel. I was also touched by the wife as she related to me her interest in reading my blog and my life's experiences in raising an autistic child and she mentioned that she is touched by my writing and feel I am doing a good thing. She made me feel good and reinforced how important my writing is to me.

I also had the chance to talk with classmates I used to hang out with and played baseball with. It was nice to relate to them all once again and just enjoy each other's company. Even though we had not seen each other for so many years we had the good fortune of reuniting through facebook and our 30 year high school reunion which was this past August. It seems possible to remain friends and to arrange future times together now and I feel that is something worth doing because these people all are wonderful and it is always nice to have friends and what better friends then the ones you grew up with and went to school with. It makes us realize how important family and friendship is and it makes us feel a bit younger reliving those days again.

I am pretty sentimental at gatherings and I wanted my friends to know that so I brought some cakes and on one of them I had inscribed "To my JFK friends of the class of '79" which garnered attention and cheers from all. It was a special moment and I told them that I meant it and was happy to see them all again.

In speaking with my friends I learned a little more about them and I was also touched by a friend of mine, David and his girlfriend who is younger than he is and is so very sweet. She is going through some personal issues as is my friend and they both have children from previous marriages. They are both wonderful people and I hope they find happiness as I think highly of them both and look forward to seeing them again as well. As for my friends Marty and Ira it was great to talk with them and just be there together at the table discussing the days when we valet parked or hung out at our friend Maury's house or when we played ball or posed for pictures in the year book. We talked about our jobs, our kids, future college plans for our children, September 11th and life. I also enjoyed our friend Adam who is a really nice guy and seems very happy. He is also very funny and enjoys singing and would be a very funny stand up comedian as he has good timing and is very spontaneous.

Our host Bari was very nice and made the night special as she extended a warm and gracious welcome to all of us and made it possible for all of us to talk and share memories with some of our classmates and their wives or friends. I felt bad towards the end of the night when I felt a little sick and unfortunately had to leave prematurely. I thanked everyone and expressed my wishes to see each other again in the future as it is nice to stay in touch and renew our friendships. It was a special night!

Edward D. Iannielli III