When I email certain of my friends, I use "Hello from the River" as the subject line. For one of them the hidden meaning is 'I'd like you to come stand on the bridge with me and look for fish' because she used to come up at least once a week for a visit. Her husband died a year ago in March, and our friendship paths seem to have diverged because, much as she says she would like to come for a visit, she never does. I've decided that a couple of years ago when she was coming up here at least once a week it was because she didn't want to stay at home with the family, and drove up here rather than driving aimlessly.

She got married at age 17, and he was 34. They stayed happily married until he died at age 88 and now she's free to do the single life things that she could have done if she'd waited a few years to get married. It's not so bad doing it that way - at this end of the life span, sometimes people have more money to spend on travel and other goals.

Early on, the reason for the frequent visits was that her daughter was seeing a therapist in Estes Park every week so they stopped here on the way home. When that ended, it was the getting away from the house reason. I don't know if Little Miss is back living at home or not, I think she might be.

Her symptoms came out when she was about 24 or so, and now she's 30 something and it's a roller coaster. I refer to her as Career Barbie because she changes her mind about what she wants to do with her life literally every few weeks. She has a BA in Communications and got good grades. Here are the ones I remember from the last couple of years, they were in this approximate order:
Nanny
Registered Nurse
Certified Nurse Practioner
Physical Therapist
Doctor
Surgeon
Airline Attendant for Alaska Airways
Fashion Designer
Fashion Model
Costume Lady for a Theatre Group
Paralegal
Regional Manager at Major Clothing Chain
Masters in Public Health Administration
Physician's Assistant

For most of them she signed up for courses and obtained government loans to pay the tuition but didn't complete the courses and never worked at them as jobs.

My friend doesn't like to talk about it unless we see each other in person, and I never ask, but I have a feeling she worries about her daughter (who is technically her granddaughter) but feels like she needs to let go and let her live her life, so the less said the better.

For awhile it looked like Little Miss found a good man a little older than she is who was wiling to be supportive and put up with her. They were talking about having children because that's always been her dream, and so on. Then, my friend found out that the man had been in prison and asked me to find out what I could about it. I didn't expect to, but you know how surprising the Internet can be. He was inside for a number of years following a conviction for child abuse for shaking a baby. I know that people should have a second chance, but it'd be hard not worry about it happening again. And they broke up. A good man is hard to find, especially for certain people.