Since all of us hailed from Bell (yes, the now infamous City of Bell, California), we tagged ourselves the "Bell Beauties", and rarely separated ourselves from one another for five days and four nights, causing some to think we might be be members of an elite softball or bowling team, or some other tight knit women's group. In fact, during dinner one night a lady approached our table telling us she had a bet with some of her fellow travelers suggesting the eight of us must be nurses !
We laughed out loud. No. Not nurses, just life long friends. Some of us from early childhood. All of us through high school days and college days; Weddings, divorce, kids and grand-kids. We've known each other most our lives, and share a deep bond of friendship - sometimes miles keeping us apart, but always close in heart. These past many months we've cheered the birth of Sandy's grand-daughter, Josie; Pauline's move to Bend, Susan's sky-diving adventure, Roberta's museum promotion and Sandy L's son safe return from Iraq. We've mourned the loss of Manya's dad, and the unexpected death of Margaret's brother, Bill; and my brother, Walt. We continue to support each other with prayer and encouragement, to share both laughter and tears. When we say to one another, "I love you, friend", we know it has real meaning because our words ring true and sincere.
To our amazement, we turn 60 this year! All agreed we needed to do something really special for our annual get together. A cruise was the perfect idea.
While the cruise was to celebrate all our birthdays, September 23 - the last full day of the cruise was Margaret's actual birthday. The gang planned a surprise cocktail party for Marg in her cabin. We could hardly wait to greet her, and loudly sing, "Happy Birthday" as she walked through the door. We knew Margaret was downstairs in the casino playing slots, what we didn't know was she was being held captive by one ! As time passed and Margaret didn't show, we still wanted to sing "Happy Birthday" and cheer her, so designated an over sized coconut monkey head to take her place. Even adding Margaret's bathing suit, her sandal's and sunglasses making it more Margaret like. It was a hoot ! As we posed for pictures and sang "Happy Birthday" to the monkey/Margaret, we got the giggles and couldn't stop laughing. The whole thing kept getting more and more silly. Then, like a magic poof , there she was - the real Margaret sauntering into the room. Each of us quickly rushed to give her a big hug, lifted our glasses to toast her day, and started singing "Happy Birthday" again, this time even more loudly.
What a swell party it was.
Before departing the ship we discussed where we should meet next. New York ? Atlanta? Williamsburg? Any of those places would be interesting and fun. However, in the end it doesn't really matter so much where we go. What matters is that we'll be together.
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