And I don’t mean, weird places geographically !
I wanted to tell you about a friend I have who lives in India, who is the sweetest person, inside and out, and I am grateful every day, to have her inside my phone.
During the ‘Freefall Weeks’ (ref my last post) I joined up to a help group on the Macmillian website. It was a specific group for sufferers of NHL. I wasn’t even sure if I should join as I’m not the patient!
Anyway, I joined, and there were a few interesting conversations and on line help forums and stuff.
Then I got a direct message from somebody saying they were in the same position as us, and would I like to use whats’app instead of the forum, to speak, as the forums are really’clunky’ and it’s easy to lose threads and miss messages.
I deliberated for a day or so. What if the person messaging me, like, dies??
What if their situation is better/worse? How would I feel ?
Anyway, I added the number to my contacts and with trepidation, said hello to the void !
Almost immediately Sunita answers me, and it transpires that her and her husband are pretty much the same age as us, they live in India, and Rakesh has the exact diagnosis that Gav has.
Over the next few weeks we laughed together, we cried together. We chatted for hours about each other’s lives, sharing facts about our kids, our houses, our families. I think the moment I realised this lady would be a friend for life, was when, one afternoon we were online chatting about medicines and treatments that our respective husbands were having, and the next minute we are sending each other pictures of our houses! Sunni said to me, chuckling ‘one minute we are discussing cancer, the next minute we are comparing soft furnishings’ ? and man, she’s got some lovely soft furnishings?
I love it when she shows me the view from her apartment ! Downtown, high rise city living! It’s fabulous to see! And she loves to see where we live.
We might not chat for weeks, but we both know we can summon each other in an instant if we need to. Every time we chat, I feel so full of warmth for her, and so so lucky to have found her. What’s the chances. I feel like we are inextricably linked. And I know one day we will meet.
She keeps trying to persuade me to brighten up my decor. She says in a country that’s much colder than India, why on earth do we all insist on painting our homes in such dull colours! She wanted to invent the Bright Company but after a quick google, we found out that we are very late to the party on that one! lol
Her son is at uni in NYC. Next time she visits him, she hopes to stop over here on the way, and I can’t wait.
Get the tissues out !
Love
Sally xx