The Call(s)

A couple days ago I got an unexpected phone call from one of my son's friends from high school/junior college.  She called to invite me to her outdoor wedding that will be held at Stafford Lake in May with a Tolkein Lord of the Rings theme (which is sooooooo her) .  She went on to say how I was a positive influence in her life during the very tumultuous teen and young adult years.  She said how our house was always a safe and welcoming place when her teenage self was such a mess.  There was one year where I took fencing lessons at Santa Rosa Junior College with my son, her, and a couple other of my son's friends.  Ahhhhhh, the good old days. 

What?  My son's friends are now embarking on their mid 30's and I thought at this point his friends from his youth had long forgotten about me and the nights at our house where I thought I was running a youth hostel complete with kids sleeping on the couch and on the blow-up mattresses on the floor.  Waking up in the morning would entail carefully stepping around a landmine of kids.  They would drain my refrigerator of milk and orange juice, and of any sort of snacks I happened to have on hand.  However, one snack I mastered was making homemade popcorn for all of them. 

Bottom Line:  I had no idea that I would receive a phone call from one of my son's friends from high school a decade plus later expressing gratitude for just being there.  

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On another note, yesterday we ran into one the mother of one of our son's friends from elementary school at the grocery store.  After exchanging phone numbers, I talked to her for an hour and a half tonight.  She told me about how years ago she saw images of her deceased father and brother reflecting on the ferry window going from SF to Larkspur.  The image also included her mother, but at the moment she was still alive (as far as she knew).  

At the time of her vision, which was years ago, her son who was a friend of my son, was staying at our house.  After she got off the ferry, she trekked north to collect her son from our house and went home.  When she arrived home, her husband was sitting on the steps and told her that her mother had died.  It was then she realized that she had a premonition of her mother's death.