Love Thursday is a family of friends

This love Thursday is dedicated to all of my friends from Old City.

I moved to old city knowing only my husband. I started working not long after I was there and met some people. I was a substitute teacher at the time and only met one person that was comfortable enough with me to give me their home number. We never really hung out but I did have her take me to the hospital once when I needed to have my incision checked.

It wasn't until after I started work full time that I made any real close friends. Old City is really made up of a bunch of people from all over the world. We were all far away from family and we created a family of friends. They were the ones that watched #1 Son when I desperately needed a night away with Mr. Husband. They were the ones that could give me hugs when the world just wasn't right.

It wasn't that my biological family didn't care about me. That was never the case. We were just so far away from them that my family of friends had to take that place.

When someone was sick we would call and check on them. I would watch their cats and water their plants when they were on vacation. We would hang out at the apartment and play with the kids. They would come to my children's birthday parties and wear silly hats and bring him gifts.

Yesterday I talked to my Adopted Old City Mommy. She was like my mom away from home. It was her that I went too when my heart was giving me problems, it was her that gave me many hugs and it was her that started a swear piggy because just maybe I said one to many bad words. It was so great to talk to her and catch up a little. To hear about her family and some of our mutual friends. To listen to her stories from work and to send hugs and kisses too.

It was hard because although I still love her very much I know that we will never have the same strong connection that we once had. I will continue to send her messages and talk to her occasionally but it will never be the same. It will never be the same for me and all of my friends in old city. Just like I have moved across the county, they have moved on with their lives.

I will always be grateful for what we had.

To read other examples of Love read Karen's blog.

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One thing that my Old City mom did tell me was about the death of one of my former students. A teacher knows that it is going to happen some day. A teacher comes in contact with such a large number of students that statistically it's going to happen sooner or later. I have had students with cancer, students that were hit by cars and students that were terribly abused at home. This is the first one that has died.

He was at home doing his homework when his brother shot him. His brother is pleading not guilty. He was 16 years old.

He will always be 12 years old to me. Full of the confidence of youth and life. If only in my memory.