Long Lasting Friendship

 Every Christmas, two friends and I would meet to exchange gifts and eat a meal. We did our gatherings until one moved to New Mexico, one lives in East Denver and I was in Arvada. We all had busy lives and we found it difficult to continue our meetings.  Our friendship has settled into a Christmas card exchange!
 

In sorting out different albums I found one I had prepared for both my friends to let them know how much I appreciated their friendship. The pictures below are not in any order but they show our happy faces in those years we met!

 

The Three Friends

Working in the same building I sometimes would go across the hall to visit my friend Maggie. Sometime in the early 1980's I went to visit her and. Maggie said, "Have you met Maria?  She works in the office right next to you." We walked over and she introduced me to a large girl with long, black hair and an accent. As the years passed, our friendship grew. We saw each other daily and shared parts of our lives. A pregnancy, a broken romance, a husband with cancer, employment woes, our travels and many other chit-chats that friends will share. Fun time and sad times, yet our sense of humor, the respect for each other and the love that was growing between us, helped us "make it through the day."

Then, everyone went their separate ways. No longer were we right next door to each other, but the friendship had taken root and it continued even though it was from a distance. A marriage, some cruises, acting lessons, children, grandchildren growing up, discussions about parents and a move out of state.

A yearly Christmas dinner caught everyone up on what was happening in each other's lives. A son in the service, Flamenco lessons, a new grandmother, birthday celebrations, a father's death, job changes and traveling adventures to Mexico, Canada, Florida, California and Europe.

This year, 2003, we will meet again.  Even though hair styles will change, a few more wrinkles will have crept in, and depending on the year, some weight gain or loss. We will be more mature and, hopefully more grown up, and the three friends are anxious to catch up, to get filled in, to find out what life has brought each one since the last meeting.

Busy friends, each doing their own thing, yet friends there for each other. Conversations will pick up as if there has been no parting. It will be fun finding out what has happened since the last time we were together. As we gather, we will be transformed into the same laughing girls of years past.

As has become a habit, gifts are exchanged, and it is always fun to be surprised. But, they know that the gift of friendship they share is the most important of all!

Erlinda Moscoso, December 23, 2003

December 11, 2023:  Our meetings began to fizzle. I would meet one friend at a time, but it was not the same. Maria lost her husband now lives in New Mexico and her children are adults, Maggie continues in the acting business, and she was in the play, Dairy of Ann Frank, that I went to see, and I keep busy doing things at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community with a new set of friends!  

What's Going On?

 What a shock I received this morning when I opened my blog and found that many readers had either opened or read my blog. The average number of readers is between 10 and 16. This morning I saw Me and Blue Tape had 54 readers, A Regret, 54; Keys Galore, 52; London Fog Coat, 50; It's A Small World, 61; I Became a Hoarder Overnight, 40; and a Poltergeist in My House, 33.  

I will never know if it is one person opening the blog or many persons. I also do not know if every time the blog is opened, if it is read or clicked on by mistake. I actually have about 15 readers that I know read my blog.

The statistics let me know that I have written 2,018 blogs, 721 persons have commented, and the all-time number of people checking my blog is 156,231! The blog with the most views is Hypnosis with 73 views, and that is a record for me!

"I am a blogger -- 

that is amazing for me 

because it captures a

moment in time every day!"

Mena Grabowski Trott

A 1995 Newsletter From Mexico

In the many boxes and envelopes I am going through to dump or keep, I have found many memories of my life throughout the years. I found a newsletter entitled HAND OF HELP, COLON, QUERETARO, MEXICO dated October-November 1995. I read about Friends and Benefactors of Santa Maria del Mexicano regarding all the assistance given to the orphanage, how a doctor and nurse had joined the staff, and what caught my eye was the headline: ERLINDA MOSCOSO ARRIVES FOR THE SIXTH TIME.

Many visitors come to Santa Maria and to our homes, but those from Colorado are very dedicated and committed. Erlinda arrived this Oct. 7, 1995, for her sixth visit to help in our program. She was very surprised to see so many new faces and changes. A new kitchen in the boy's home and another new one at Santa Maria really caught her eye. Yet, the biggest surprise was the great influx of the number of children.

The following are a few of the children she encountered. A slender boy named Edgar, 10 years of age with a crew-cut hair style. He told Erlinda that he had been working since he was six years old. His Dad died and he had to work to support the family. He had a variety of jobs including washing cars and also dishes at a hotel. Eventually he was fired because he broke too many of the dishes. (He continues washing dishes in the Boy's Home, but our plastic dishes are as hard as steel, so no problem about getting fired.)

Erlinda has many other new little ones jumping on her all the time. Little Pedro is four years old, sweet and chubby and lovable. This type of child can be spoiled very easily but the staff is always on the alert for this. His father is working in the U.S., divorced from Pedro's mother and who is now classified by the judge as an unfit mother.  We have so many similar cases such as Pedro. Erlinda and the other staff members will make life a dream for them, rather than a nightmare.

The rest of the Newsletter were Christmas Greetings from the children and Father. Two children tell their story.  Mauricio Robles, 10, tells about sniffing glue, joining gangs and being in a detention center. "I am happy at Casa de Ninos and everybody loves me here. I have never celebrated Christmas."

Leonel Robles, 9, never met his father, his mother was always in the street with men, and he lived with his grandmother. "I have an uncle who uses drugs and is now in jail. We traveled to places together where we would steal. Once he left me in Guanajuato and I got lost. I lived in the bus terminal for two months. I slept in a carboard box and a lady gave me tacos to eat. I was run over by a cab and my grandmother brought me here. I am happy here but sometimes I want to be back in the streets."

The Newsletter was signed by Fr. Cliff Norman and his wish for the greatest joy and peace to all.

I returned a couple of more times and each time I met new children. I remember when I was put in charge of the girls' house and it was like being a mother to fifteen girls, ages 5 to 15. Those young girls also had tragic stories but seemed more settled than the boys. The first year I helped I taught the Kinder class and those children will forever be in my mind. Those children are in their thirties now!

What I experienced by volunteering is one highlight of my life. If my own children had not given me grandchildren, I probably would have continued helping out at La Casa de Ninos in Mexico.

I thought I was going to help and give them my love, but it turned out that they gave me more love and won over my heart! Hugging the children as I said good-bye left my heart sad as we all cried our goodbyes. When they gave me their prized possessions, so I would not forget them, I came home with many stuffed animals and drawings they made for me.

 Finding tidbits in going through boxes is great for bringing memories upfront and letting me relive parts of my past!

"I left part of my heart in Mexico."

E. Moscoso