I was in Toronto for the July long weekend attending my friend Chead’s 60th birthday. This birthday was more like a wedding.
Beatrice (we have been friends since 1965 when we started in Form 1 together) and Chead (he was in one form higher than us) looked like a bride and groom. He looked very flashy and handsome with his wedding like kurta and her langa could outdo any bride’s.
What was fabulous about the pooja was how many people attended whose relationship with both Beatrice and Chead date back to early childhood.
There were many people who are originally from Cumming’s Lodge (where we attended school) and Industry (the next village where there was really do dividing line).
The other beautiful thing was that some of our classmates were there on Saturday – Joe, Mercedes, Racey, Georgie, Satyanand, and me of course.
When you leave your country of birth and settle in another country, it can be years before you meet people you’ve spent the most impressionable years of your life with.
So it’s a rare and delightful treat to meet up with everyone. I feel blessed that after almost five decades, my friendship with all of these people is as strong as ever. We don’t see each other as often as I would like to but when we do, it’s as if no time had passed.
In the last six months I have been fortunate to meet Amna in Florida, and to see Joe, Bonny, Paul, Prak, Albert, Annie, Beatrice, Mercedes, Racey, Satyanand, and Georgie in Toronto. Many of them live in the Toronto area, but some had to travel from the US to be here.
The picture below was one that was taken in April – 3 days after my exam so we were celebrating. These were my friends who knew me as an 11 year-old who loved to play sports and did not take school very seriously. I can now admit that I was so un-serious about school that I once got 3/100 in Latin. I think that was worse than 0.
I can still conjugate the Latin verb “amā́re”, even though I can think of no use for it, unless I was planning to go into the priesthood (impossible for a woman anyway).
I can give only one reason for doing that dreadfully in Latin, – I had more interesting things to do at school – like visit with my friends, playing on all the sports teams, and generally being a social butterfly.
The reunion was a great success, and the birthday party a greater success.
It’s wonderful to have lifelong friends that still care about each other. My love and sincerest thanks to all for making the effort to meet.
Sandra
