Tales of the Unexpected

In the last couple of weeks I have reconnected with a few old friends. Much of the experience of returning to Manchester has involved friendships old and new, as those of you have followed my blog posts will know. As the weeks fly by, accelerating to the end of my one year contract, I had thought that the coincidences and connections were tailing off. However at a birthday celebration I met someone who was a friend of mine when I was in my late teens.She and her beautiful children came to my first wedding. We stayed in touch for a while, but life intervened and we lost touch. It was wonderful to meet up so unexpectedly after nearly forty years! The following week another friend came to visit, passing through Manchester. We were friends in our teens, wrote to one another from our respective boarding schools, and I was devastated to be told he had died of an overdose when he was about 18. Except he hadn't. About six years ago my sister was wondering if his brother was related to one of the parents at her son's school. They shared an unusual surname. I googled the brothers and found my late lamented friend, alive and well, with a work email address! Our parents worked in the Far East and through him I have been in touch with others from those far off Sarawak days. The strange thing is that our paths had crossed but we hadn't met. We'd even been at the same concerts. I just never expected to see him. Would I have thought he was a ghost? Last weekend I went to a one day course on folk song in England at Sheffield University, organised by the English Folk Dance and Song Society. I had booked my place last August. There were a few familiar faces there. One of my lecturers from my MA, ten years ago now. A friend from the commuter train and somenone else from the singing class I used to go to. At the lunch break a woman who had looked familiar, but who I couldn't place, called me by name. Amazingly she is another friend from our teenage years, with links to 8th Day. We have kept in touch recently on Facebook, thanks to a significant 8th Day anniversary a few years ago, but neither of us had announced our weekend plans for the course in Sheffield on social media. It was fantastic to see her. One of my friends reminded me of the saying ' Friends for a season. Friends for a reason. Friends for life.' Some of these connections are so deeply embedded in my past, it's difficult to take in these reconnections. It's a magical experience, a fairy tale.