AZDonna

Back in September, I posted a 10 Things entry in which I wondered whatever happened to my childhood friend, Denice. We met when she and I were around 7 or 8 years old when our family moved into the house on Kilburn Road and she lived across the street. I was a year older, almost exactly, as our birthdays were only 4 days apart. We spent our days running across the blistering road to each others’ houses so we could swim or play Barbies or jacks, or watch TV, or fight with my brothers (she had three sisters but we rarely fought with them!). As we entered our teen years, our interests turned to boys and hairstyles, and we worried more about how we looked in our swimsuits than how good the pool water felt. She knew when I got my first period, my first kiss, and my first broken heart.

At the end of high school, she moved from Tucson to Lola, Kentucky, where her family was originally from. She met and married Ray Smith and had two little boys. Since her mother still lived in their house on Kilburn, she visited Tucson a few times over the next few years, and I saw her a couple of times. We tried to write back and forth a bit, but I think Denice didn’t like to write letters and we lost touch around 1974. I gave up on the idea of ever finding her again for many years, but about 6 or 8 years ago with increasing power of the internet, I began to search for her. I googled her and her husband’s and son’s names. I even called a couple of phone numbers thinking it might be her son, but never found anyone who knew her. When I signed up for Facebook two years ago, she was one of the first people I searched for. Every few months, I search again for her and any family members’ names I remembered.

Yesterday, I did another search, trying several combinations of her name, and suddenly when I typed in just “Jimmie Denice”, her name “Jimmie Denice Goode (Croft)” living in Paducah, Kentucky, popped up first on the list. Eureka! I knew it must be her, but tentatively sent a Facebook message asking “Could this be my girlhood friend from Tucson in the 1960s?”. This morning, she accepted my friend request, and wrote on my wall, “No, I am your “best” friend forever and your “true” blood sister!!! Remember we cut our fingers so our blood would mix together. So glad to hear from you! Have never had our kind of friendship with any one else.”

We’ve already been messaging back and forth this afternoon, and I have learned that she is remarried, with two sons, two step sons, and seven grandchildren.  Her mother (Opal Lee) died in 2008, but her father (Randolph) and three sisters (Randa, Linda and Sharion) all live within 65 miles of her.  We have much more catching up to do, but with Facebook, email and cell phones, I can confidently say we will do just that and (hopefully) never lose touch again!

I made another trip to Boise in May. I happened to time it perfectly for seeing Megan perform in their church spring children’s musical program. Capital Christian Center is blessed to have Frank Hernandez as their children’s musical director. Frank and his wife, Betsy, are professional songwriters and have produced and published several children’s musical programs, including “Bullfrogs and Butterflies” and the well known “Music Machine“, which my kids performed at Northside Christian Church when they were little.  Frank and Betsy wrote the musical “The Amazing Book” a few years ago, and that’s what CCC’s kids performed the weekend I was there.

Megan auditioned for and won the part of  Dot, one of two nerdy experts who helped explain what the bible is all about to an energetic and inquisitive boy in the library.

Megan had a two line solo in one of the songs, but it was her acting and dancing that really stood out. Here are a couple of video clips from the show that I took with my iPhone.  The quality is not very good, but Megan is the one on the “right”. You can see them better on the screen above the choir.

In this clip, Megan’s two solo lines start at “First and Second Peter”. Listen quick!

Megan has started on pointe in her ballet classes this year. I will miss her spring recital this year, but I did ask her to put on her shoes and give me a demo of some of her dance positions. I think she has the beauty and grace of a beautiful dancer.

Steven is just finishing kindergarten, and he is going to a private school. He was all dressed in his school uniform the morning before I left, so I snapped a picture of this little handsome.

Robin and Ken are getting a makeover on their house, painting walls and cabinets, staining the wood floors, and building an outdoor barbecue kitchen. The workers started on the paint prep the morning before I left. I snapped a quick picture of the kitchen so we could all say good bye to the old and anticipate the new.

Robin texted me this picture of the progress part way. The workers still have things torn up and the floors are not stained yet, but you can see how nice the cabinets are coming along and how much brighter the kitchen looks.

The only other thing we did while I was there was attend a baby shower for a couple in the church (the senior pastor’s son) who just adopted twin baby boys. When I heard the news of how they got them, I started to cry. I always get teary over sweet adoption stories since Andrew came into our family. The weather was beautiful, their first nice weekend since winter, so my timing was great. It was a wonderful visit!

I had surgery to remove my Morton’s Neuroma on May 5. I was prepared for up to three months recovery and full healing, but I’ve been very (pleasantly) surprised at how quickly I have gotten back to walking normally. I thought you would all love to see all the gory pictures of my progress.

Pre-surgery. You can see the “divot” between the third and fourth toes. That’s from all the cortisone and alcohol injections. My tissue was really atrophied. But that persistent neuroma would not give up and die. So it was off with its head!

This was taken right after surgery.

I had a visit from Lauren and Brian a couple days later while I was still spending all my time on the couch with my foot elevated. Lauren was in a great mood.

Here’s the fashionable footwear they gave me.

I went back to the doctor 5 days later to have the bandages changed, but not the stitches removed. You can see the doctor’s purple initials on my ankle. He signed before surgery to verify the correct side. As an extra precaution, I wrote on my left foot, “NOT THIS FOOT”.

My black toes peeping out of the fresh bandages.

Two weeks after surgery I went back to finally get the stitches out. That meant I could then get it wet.  Was I glad to finally be able to get all the way in the shower instead of hanging my foot over the edge.

I could finally wear regular shoes.

And the bruising and incision continued to heal. I polished my toenails! (I had to remove all polish for surgery.)

This was taken today. Thirty days. Feeling good. Looking good. Walking good.

There is permanent numbness between my two toes and a little soreness left, but I have confidence this was very successful and the right decision. I think I’ll go hiking!