The Serendipity of Friends

The Linden Hills neighborhood kids all grown up (with one grandkid added) - the Koppel kids, one Liddy kid, and the Cooney kids back on the block.

I’ve spent more than a week surrounded by close friends, both here at home and at a beach house in South Carolina. And that’s led to deep pondering about friendships and how they come to be.

A week ago, we gathered with an array of former neighbors as well as the adult version of the former kids of the neighborhood to celebrate the life of our friend Sheree Cooney. The greetings and hugs and memories and laughs and tears spanned nearly 20 hours and two events. We welcomed friends from around the country - all returning to honor our connection to Sheree.

Most of the stories we shared were highly appropriate. But not all. That wouldn’t have been true to the feisty woman who was Sheree.  

We knew nothing about this neighborhood when we signed a short term lease for a house at the end of 1990. We just thought the house was cute and near a couple of lakes, and how bad could that be? Turns out the serendipity of that decision landed us in the midst of a true village that helped us raise our kids with the nurturing of good friends - like Sheree. And those serendipitous friends remain dear today. 

The rest of the week was spent with a group of my college roommates. What could be more random than the array of 18 year olds who show up on a Freshman hall in North Carolina? Yet among those women - plus a few from the other three years - are some of my closest friends today. We’ve shared experiences of first jobs, dating, marriages, kids, pets, good health and bad, and now grandchildren. 

We are lucky - again pure serendipity - that we were thrown together in college and have remained close. We started arranging get-togethers nearly 30 years ago, before texting and email made it easy.  Now we have Google shared drives to arrange activities on trips abroad. 

This week was an easy trip to meet up at Myrtle Beach where one of The Girls conveniently purchased a house that is ideal for gathering. We missed one core member who was wrapping up treatment at Duke, but she zoomed in to laugh along with us nonetheless. 

I can only imagine what life would have been without these women, these friends in my life. Less fun for certain. And definitely less meaningful.