By Cpearl ( Holly Cohen )

Have you ever been able to go back in time and retrieve something you thought was lost forever?

When I was 10 we moved to the Pacific Coast, and my parents bought a piece of property and built a lovely home. Most every room had a view of the ocean and it’s ever changing moods. From then on I had a love affair with the seashore.

The neighborhood was old (but VERY nice) and sparsely populated, and the whole thing was hillside living. Due to that there were many lovely homes and all with many stairs and terraces. There was also a big bridge that went over the coast highway, so very easy to get to the beach. So many places to play as a child and a young teenager. But pretty typical of southern California living.

In time I met the kids of the area. One little girl in particular and I really became fast friends. She was so sweet; her smile like sunshine and her pale aqua colored eyes sparkled like the sun on the ocean waves.

Through those young years we had a lot of fun and got into plenty of mischief. We both loved so many of the same things, shared our thoughts and secrets. Also there are a lot of other stories about our lives back then, but that would fill a book. I thought it would be that way forever.

Well in time as we hit our mid teens things were starting to take place that would eventually take our friendship away. I was a year older than her so school times were different and boy friends came into the picture. Also there was a neighborhood girl who was bound and determined to get in the way of our friendship. It was a loss I cried to my mom about a lot.

When I graduated from high school I married my high school sweetheart and moved away. She was not at my wedding nor did I see her again and I was sad about that.

Then some years later she happened by chance to come into where I worked. I was too busy to be able to have more than a few words with her L She looked sad, pale, and thin and like a light was gone from her eyes. It really haunted me for I did not know what had happened in her life. It worried me for years.

Jacquie was her name and all the years that followed whenever I heard that name I immediately thought of her. I missed her and so wondered how she was doing, always.

Fast-forward 33 years later (I also had long since moved away from California), and my son is talking about Classmates.com. Both my kids, myself and Jacquie all graduated from the same high school. In time I went Online and looked into it. But only into my class. Since the one person I really wanted to find was not in my class, I almost lost interest.

Then I found by chance a link to the class behind me. I had no intention of looking for Jacquie (for I did not want to be disappointed), but I did see other names I knew. The person who was handling that site gave the list to me. Well, when I was part way through looking at it ALL OF A SUDDEN I see Jacquie’s name and email. WOW could it REALLY be? Would she answer me if I emailed her?? Well in 45 minutes I had a REPLY!!!!!!!!!!!

I was crying all over my keyboard! So for months we played walking down memory lane and getting caught up on ALL those years. We also relived ALL the things that we did together. It was so exciting! Yes, I came to a point where I told her I had MS. She handled that news quite well; I was so relieved J So for 2 years we almost daily emailed each other.

A few months ago she got a promotion and moved to my state of Washington from Idaho. Now we were only a 2½ hour drive from each other! Last weekend was our reunion after 35 years, WOW! It was fabulous and very emotional!! So we did indeed go back into time and retrieve something we had lost!

We hugged for a long time, and I felt all the years just melt away we were both SO happy. Mere words can barely describe my thoughts and feelings at that moment. It was like an affirmation of my life. We shared our precious youth together and missed out on all the middle years, and now we face the older years but as friends reunited.

The whole day with her was like a dream (sure glad our husbands got along) sharing NEW memories that I NEVER in a million years would have thought would ever happen again.

After dinner came time for us to leave (which was hard to do), but as Jacquie said, "This is just the beginning." SO Oct 5^th, 2003 goes down as one of those INCREDIBLE events in my life and absolutely miraculous!!

The picture below is Jacquie with her hand on my shoulder in their garden of roses.