We were great friends in elementary school and then lost touch in high school.  The last few years, a small group of my Bedford Park Public School classmates has been getting together for annual reunions.  I didn’t go, but I became aware of Craig again, even though I couldn’t figure out which one he was in the group photo.

And now there’s today.  Craig and I met for lunch at EggSmart on Toronto’s Weston Road.  We hugged and smiled on meeting.

Two twelve-year-olds had morphed into two seventy-six-year-olds.  We talked of our adult lives, with Craig educating me about concert promoting and writing a column.  Very cool.  He told me that when he was choosing a career path, this was the order of his priorities:

1.  It’s fun.

2.  It’s satisfying.

3.  It produces enough income for enjoyable living.

At some point, the concerts were no longer fun … so writing became the new path.  Very cool again.

And then there was the past.  Craig remembered when I was stretching to catch a football pass and smashed into a cement post.  He thought I was dead.  (Not true!)

I remembered shooting arrows with Craig in his driveway and embedding an arrow into his cheek.  (Also not true.  It never happened!)  He had hit another kid with an arrow in the back lane.  So much for my memory gland.

We laughed so much, discovering that we’ve become two happy people.  Yes, there have been health challenges for each of us, but our spirit is far larger than them.

Craig asked me not include his picture in this post but seemed pleased that I was going to write about our meal in EggSmart.  Me too.

***

Finding each other

Renewing our friendship

Celebrating our lives