What is a Friend?

 

What is a Friend?

Friendship is described as “a voluntary mutual relationship characterized by affection, trust and support.” Yes! This describes my friendship with both Debbie and Matt. The same Debbie and Matt who drove 600 miles for 14 hours to meet with me in Minneapolis. And………….took on the chore of schlepping me all around the city for 2 days.

Debbie moved up from Southern California over thirty years ago when I was an enthusiastic – another word for hungry, Realtor. She was referred to me by another client. We made an appointment to look at available houses and she and her boyfriend at the time saw around six properties. When we wound up our tour, Bob, the boyfriend asked what I thought Debbie should do. As in which house should she buy. Huh? Never having been a hard sell, I normally showed a lot of houses over a long period time. My answer was she should see some more homes.

And she did. She wound up buying an Eichler, my favorite builder in my favorite neighborhood of Willow Glen. Too much work she said. She wanted out and we sold this house. She said she would wait until something came up in my complex – Eichler townhouses. Same ambiance with half the work. Who knew that this was the beginning of a friendship?!

Voila! My neighbor who was also a friend was relocating and her house was available. So I showed Debbie, she bought it and now I had a neighbor who was also a friend. This is as good as it gets! We shared so many glasses of wine, shopping trips for home improvement items and a lot of laughs. When I forgot to put the flour in the mini latkes, we passed it off as special consideration for our gluten intolerant guests, of which there were none.

Now on to Matt, Debbie’s good friend. Somewhere along the line, Matt and I sold his house in Fremont. We sold it to some offbeat religion, which we have always referred to as “the cult”. Because I’m computer challenged, his technical help is a necessary as air to breathe. What are problems to me, he views as puzzles to be solved. He does not give up! And all of this with a sense of humor. He’s been promoted to my editor of this blog. Promotion, yes; more money, no.

Sitcom worthy is the time he remotely guided me in the process of putting an ink cartridge in my printer. His ingenuity in problem solving is abundant. He managed to hang a piece of art to hang from the ceiling, but not attached to the ceiling – don’t ask but he did it! And let’s not forget a regular (not cordless) lamp with no available outlet acquiring power by means of a chargeable battery pack.

All good things must come to and end, they say. My friends retired, relocated to a slower pace and less expensive area. I miss having them for holiday dinners. I miss Debbie for whine and wine sessions, and, Debbie, your artistic eye is very much missed for design help. Yes, like the Winchester Mystery House, there is always a project here.

This story doesn’t end because we won’t let it. As in my favorite toast, “Here’s to us! - good people are scarce”. Here’s to you, good people Debbie and Matt!

$1,000,000 question: Will the Warrior’s new forward, Lendeborg, stay out of a trance and out of Draymond’s hair?