the friend...

...I met yesterday when I went to spend the day in Decatur goes back a long way. Her husband was in the Army, which is how they found themselves in the steamy, humid climate of central GA. He was a Captain when I met them, they were living in post housing - with all the odd, often unreasonable requirements that the military imposes on those can make demands on.  No heat or cooling until the Army says you are hot or cold enough to need the temperature inside adjusted. No painting or marking on the walls without the Army telling you a change is required. Mow the grass when the Army says it needs cutting.

We were pregnant together. Which sounds sort of odd, like something that might occur in situations with multiple wives. Somehow, I had not been able to get into a class that would make me a bit better prepared for the inevitable: childbirth. Only one way in, only one way out. And I was so unbelievably naïve, though I had read stuff, and knew the basics - as in the previous sentence. So I found myself in a 'prepared childbirth' class with this other couple, E. and the prospective dad, M., offered to military families in the base hospital. She delivered on post, and my first baby arrived at a hospital in town. In January, during an ice storm. Several weeks after the 'due date', which was a good thing, as it gave me enough time to finish the classes and  be as 'prepared' as I was ever gonna get. M. was in the Army for some years, they relocated several times, then they moved back to WA where they had both grown up.

E. was in Atlanta a couple of years ago, coming to the metro to attend the wedding of an adult child of a cousin. We had a good visit, roaming the streets of downtown Decatur, talking and reminiscing, sitting on benches on the courthouse square, filling in the gaps that occur over the years. She was in town yesterday for the same reason - another wedding of another adult child of that same cousin. So we got together to do some more remembering, and spent the day talking about families, history and reconnecting.