My Friend, Terri

About a million years ago, when I was a young mother with two little boys, I met the most wonderful friend. She was exactly who I needed especially at that moment in time. Her name is Terri.

Tim and Terri Hearon showed up at the small church we attended in Cayucos sometime in the early 1980's, I think. They had three kids, Aimee, Brandis and Dallas, who were around the same age as our boys. Three things immediately stood out to me about Tim and Terri; they were a really beautiful couple, they were both outgoing, funny and friendly, and I knew these were our people. Seriously, from day one, we were friends. By the time church was over, we knew they were new in town so we invited them over for lunch. That lunch lasted so long it turned into dinner. For the few short years they lived near us, I think Terri and I saw each other almost every day and our families were together just about every weekend. We camped, we had double-dates, we watched each others kids so we could have alone time vacations. It was truly some of my happiest times with our little families together.

One of my favorite memories with Terri was grocery shopping. Sounds crazy but it's true. We had five small children between us and we were both barely into our twenties. Money was tight with us having just bought our first home and Bob being the sole income. It was pretty much the same for Tim and Terri. So, Terri and I started making weekly menus together and grocery lists. Then we would head out together with all the kids in tow and our calculators. We'd go through the entire store, side-by-side, helping each other with kids and potty breaks, or grocery decisions. And the coupons! We used coupons like the bosses we were. It was so much fun to accomplish this task every week as a team. I went from hating to go to the store to looking forward to it.

 

This is me with the five kids after one of our grocery trips. We haven't even unloaded everything and already, everyone was starving. I loved my tiny kitchen full of little faces. 

From the left: Brandis, Dallas, Aimee, Matthew and John.

Tim, Terri and the kids eventually moved farther away but would come back to stay with us for a week. One of the most important weeks they ever spent with us was Thanksgiving week of 1989. It was just a few weeks after bringing our girls, Rachel and Belen home. Nothing would have been more perfect than having Tim and Terri that week. They helped everyone settle in and settle down. Bob and I and the boys were happy and excited to finally have the girls home but I think we probably overwhelmed Rae and Bel with our enthusiasm. The Hearon family was just the right buffer to bring everything to a fun yet peaceful stride that week. I'll always be grateful for them showing up for us like they always did.

We all lived in California during this time and even though they had moved far from us, we liked that they were still in the state. One day I got the call I dreaded. They had been talking about moving somewhere else and had decided to head to Florida. I tried really hard to sound excited and happy but when we hung up, I cried like a baby. Truthfully, every time they moved a little further from us, I had cried. I missed Terri in my daily life. Florida seemed like the moon. 

Over the years, we stayed in touch, with them moving up to Georgia later and us moving to Oklahoma. The years kept passing and we kept talking about seeing one another but it never happened. Tim and Terri now had four kids and we had seven. Life took over and time got away from us. Then Terri called one afternoon to tell us Tim had been killed in an accident. It was devastating news to hear.

Years later, Terri made it out to Oklahoma and we had a wonderful time having dinner and catching up. It felt like no time had passed as we laughed and cried together once more. Terri is remarried now and living in Tennessee and we now live in Florida. As fate would have it, her youngest son also lives in Florida and Terri is coming for a visit in a few days. I don't think I could be much happier right now thinking about seeing my friend again. I'm already working on my grocery list. Maybe we'll go shopping.