Over 30 years ago, what started as a casual friendship while we watched and supported our husbands as they played golf, a deep and lasting bond was formed. Knowing Susan Nebel left an imprint on my heart that will never go away. With love and fondness I share just a few of the ways she touched my life.
From the beginning I felt like family with Susan. We ate together, shared recipes, recommended books and enjoyed time just visiting. Susan 'shared' her beloved housekeeper/babysitter with us when we had no help in that area. When we were unable to travel to be with our family one Thanksgiving Susan included us in their loud, fun and friendly family gathering where I came to know her as "Aunt Susie". I remember the still-warm cream cheese braids that were delivered to our home on Christmas Eve or the numerous meals we ate together with our husbands and friends.
A relationship that started at the golf course was really so much more fun in the 19th hole. Susan could hold her own with jokes and witty punch lines, which were so much better than listening to the guys recount each stroke on the course that they had just played together! No one could deliver a blonde joke like Susan😊
We ate Mexican food at Memo's, dinner on our patios and around dining room tables. We solved world problems over a glass (or bottle!) of wine and we laughed. We studied the Bible with friends in a room at a pizza parlor and we shared our deepest thoughts with each other that we knew would be held safe. We listened to each other as we agonized over choices our children made and we celebrated their successes. We sat at dove hunts together, we laughed at New Year's Eve parties playing Pictionary, and we 'blamed it on Mexico'.
Susan is the type of friend that when I moved away and didn't ever want to go back to my old town - I allowed her to help my husband pack the kitchen for the final move. Nothing bares a soul quite like allowing another woman to view your messy cabinets. Yet Susan did it with love and never paused in her willingness to help.
Over the last 11 years we have lived hours apart yet the imprint and connection were not lost. We chatted on social media and shared our lives through pictures, comments and occasional phone calls. We prayed for each other as we went through life events over the years. She taught me how to use q in the word qaid in Words With Friends, yet I could never seem to beat her.
The last time I heard Susan's voice on the phone she was calling to say she was just too weak to attend the birthday celebration when I turned 60. We talked, cried a little and I remember the last 2 things she asked me: "Will you take lots of pictures and post them so I feel like I'm there and though they probably won't remember me will you tell your granddaughters that Aunt Susie loves them?"
I love Susan Nebel. She probably had friends that were closer, and those who knew her better but the imprint she left on my heart is permanent. I will cherish the memories we share, I will miss her wit and I hope someday when we have neighboring mansions in heaven that she will let me win at least one game of Words with Friends.
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