Real Friends Last Forever

A woman I consider one of my best friends in the world visited from her home in Nova Scotia over the weekend. She is very busy both in her job and at home, with three great children (who were all with her on this visit), so it's not like our communication with each other is based in quantity, but quality. When it comes to email, she says, "I'm not a good responder." Well, her visit to our home was shorter than Janne and I would have liked it to be, but was still a breath of fresh Nova Scotia air in the middle of our hectic home-showing and baby-raising lives.
Sandi's husband, Wade, had stayed home (she claims he's not a good traveller), but he emailed me after Sandi had already hit the road, and asked me for our phone number to relay to her, because she had apparently forgotten it somewhere. As a new dad, I was interested to find out from Wade if he was missing his kids yet, and he admitted that, yes, it was too quiet around the house for his liking. I had also told him that Liam had ignored me that morning for the very first time in order to pay attention to one of his favourite 'shows' on Treehouse TV, and Wade reminisced to me about watching Treehouse with their youngest, Connor, and remembered one of their favourite shows. No doubt, Liam and I will have a number of favourite TV shows, too - but I still felt a little jilted that morning when he wouldn't turn his head away from the tube to say bye-bye to his Daddy.
You have to see Sandi and Wade's kids! (and you will in a minute) They're quite a good-lookin' bunch; young Connor, middle girl Jenna, and big brother Evan. Evan towers over me. I'm 5'10". He's about 6'1", I think. "He has my brother's height," says Sandi.
Sandi and my wife became almost instant friends when they met a number of years ago on a trip that Janne and I had taken to the East Coast in an effort to show off my home province and my many friends there.
One of the main reasons for Sandi's trip to Ontario was to bring daughter Jenna to a dance competition, at which it seems she did very well. Not one to brag, when I asked her how she did at the competition, Jenna shyly replied, "Oh, I got a trophy and some other prizes." I didn't push it any further, but that sounds to me like she WON, something I'd hardly be able to contain myself about, had it been me cuttin' up the rug. Irish dancing is her specialty, by the way, so you may see her taking over the show from a certain Mr. Flatley someday.

Sandi and I have remained friends for over 30 years. Ironically, I think we've been friends for about 33 years, which just happens to be Janne's age.

...so it's just another one of the very good things that started in 1973.