Old Friends

Today I met a woman for breakfast that I hadn't had a conversation with for over 10 years.  More specifically, I hadn't had a real conversation with her since the weeks surrounding Seth's death. 
I'll call her Marie, because that's her name.  Marie was the youth pastor's wife at the church we attended at the time.  She and her husband Brian had known Steve from way before that even, because they had all gone to the same college. Brian had been at the ER with us when we got the news that Seth had died. He drove us home from the hospital, where we had just left our baby in the care of the people from the funeral home. Marie made almost all the phone calls for us that evening to friends and family to deliver the news and to give information regarding the visitation and funeral.
They weren't the best of times.

We never went back to that church and three years later, we moved away and so did they and we just never reconnected.
We had a lot to catch up on. We laughed a lot, had delicious quiche and coffee, and cried a little, too.
She said that she still has dreams about seeing Steve burst through their door that night asking Brian to take him to the hospital.  It was so long ago, but still feels so...raw. Especially this time of year.
Anyway, it was good to see her again and to rekindle that friendship.  New friends are great and you can never have too many, but there is just something to be said for old friends.