Ten years ago

I was in Guadalajara, already at my desk, when I received a phone call from John in California screaming at me to tune in to CNN immediately. About 20 minutes later, Montse was at my door to take me to her house. I spent the rest of the day glued to the television with her, her family and our other chicas who stopped in. The streets of Guadalajara were deserted as everyone stayed home to watch television.

For the rest of the week, I was stopped by people on the street and in the shops in my neighborhood who shook my hand and told me how sorry they were about "las torres gemelas" as they call them in Spanish (the twin towers.) They wanted to know if I had lost any friends or family and were relieved when I said I hadn't. Their thoughtfulness and genuine sadness were touching.

To add to the sadness, just the day before I had received word of the death of an old friend from my days in Washington, DC, Nancy Nolf. Nancy and I were exactly the same age and met at a Weight Watchers meeting in downtown Washington. We loved telling the story of how we met: we were the only white women in the meeting, and the only two women who did not need two chairs to support ourselves. The meeting didn't end until about 8:00 pm by which time the streets of DC were deserted. We took the same metro from the Farragut West station to the same stop at the Pentagon and then the same bus to the same neighborhood in Alexandria. Of course, we had not exchanged a single word; we later admitted we were each thinking the same thing....why is this woman stalking me? When we both got off the bus at the same stop, we finally spoke to each other at the exact same moment. We were instant BFF. This would have been in 1978! We stayed in contact after I returned to California, and we got together several times over the years.

Unfortunately, Nancy's forever was cut short. She met the man of her dreams in 1999, married him in January, 2000 (I attended the wedding in Maryland), was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in January, 2001 and died on September 10, 2001. Because of 9/11 and the cancellation of all international flights, I was unable to attend her funeral. Her husband later told me my last letter to her, which arrived on September 10, was read as a part of her service.

Sad days.