On the surface my plans seemed fairly straight forward. I had a training course for work this morning and was then meeting friends for lunch, former colleagues from the time when my cancer struck. I was a little nervous about the training because I had been asked to have a quick meeting beforehand and I was a little concerned about what was going to be discussed. My anxiety levels weren’t helped by the fact that the weather (pouring rain) considerably slowed my journey time meaning I arrived half an hour late.
Turns out the meeting was positive and a matter that had been causing me some angst was resolved.
Training was grand and finished up early. Happy days, except I had an hour and a half before I met my friends for lunch at a cafe 10 mins away! I decided to head on over, park up and ring hubby for a chat.
As it turned out, I was leaving the building and bumped into a girl I don’t know, but recognised. She said hello and gave me a very friendly smile. I said hello back and commented that every time I was in that particular building I always saw her! She laughed and agreed that she recognised me too. She introduced herself and I did the same. She said she recognised my name and we ended up chatting. She was really lovely and we ended up having a long chat, like old friends.
By the time I left her and got to the cafe I was only slightly early. I ran through the rain and entered the cafe, soaked. There was a man just inside the door. I told him I was meeting two friends but I didn’t see them there yet and could I just sit anywhere? He started to smile and I took a closer look at him, before laughing and saying “You don’t work here, do you??”. “I don’t love, I’m just waiting for coffee to take away!! But sure sit wherever you like!!” One of the actual staff came over, also laughing and pointed me in the direction of some free tables. Doh!!
My friends arrived and we ate our lunch whilst enjoying a good old catch up. I was working with them when I was first diagnosed so it was lovely to be able to share old memories of a work period that I refer to as ‘my halcyon years’. I loved the job I’d been doing then, but I’m fortunate to also love the job I was doing before and went back to after I returned to work following my treatment.
After our fun and heartwarming get together one of them insisted on paying. He returned with two men and a woman I thought I recognised but couldn’t place. She immediately greeted me with a huge smile and seemed genuinely pleased to see me.
She realised I didn’t recognise her and told me who she was……another former colleague who I was very fond of. She’d been through a challenging time, split up with a not very nice husband, and emerging glittering! I couldn’t believe it was her. She looks wonderful and her heart is as warm as it always was. We ended up getting another cuppa each and shared a bun while we laughed about the good old days when we’d worked together.
She told me how she’d loved reading this blog and praised my positivity. I confessed to her that writing is a way for me to get my head around things and that my golden rules were to always be honest, but also always end blog posts on a positive note.
We sat for hours and she did my heart so much good. I promised her I would write a post about our serendipitous meeting, so here it is. I won’t name her, but you know who you are you wonderful, wonderful lady!!
A planned get together with two great friends, followed by an unplanned get together with another great friend. Sometimes when I’m finishing a blog post, I have to think hard in a Pooh bear kind of way, searching for the positive. Not today. My heart is full.
I didn’t know today was going to be a lovely day, but by golly it was!!
“Lovely day, lovely day, lovely day, love-ly day!!”
