"Forever" to P&J meant until a year later when Kodak shipped them off to Sao Paulo, Brazil. We were devastated. Our two kids were the same ages and the girls had gone off to kindergarten together. Our two-year old boys would play side by side and often together as they lurched through their toddlerhood. We had found the perfect neighbors and they were leaving us.
Thankfully, they decided to hold on to their house and rented it to a lovely English family who had been sent to Rochester from Rank Xerox. (We even visited them at their home in Ross-on-Wye when we went to England and Scotland in 1981). But we were holding our breath for P&J to come home.
They did come for a visit about a year later and we were all so glad to see each other. Penny and I were chatting away on our back porch while the boys were playing quietly in the house. Soon it seemed that they were too quiet. We went looking for them and couldn't find them in the house. Once outside, we saw that Penny's rental car was missing from our driveway...and was on the lawn of the house across the street, with two little grinning boys on the front seat. The boys had somehow gotten themselves into the car and put the gear shift into neutral. The slight slope of our driveway gave them enough momentum to roll down the driveway, cross the road and end up on the grassy lawn, missing a huge maple tree by inches. That was a day Penny and I will remember "forever."
P&J returned to Rochester after what seemed to me was about 10 years, but in reality was only about two and a half. The kids all grew up together, we added another one, and P&J were Aunt Penny and Uncle Jim to our kids. Then Jim decided to take an early out from Kodak and they moved to Maryland, after their son graduated from high school. Once again, we were sad, but we understood the rationale and it was an easier separation; we were older and wiser, I think. Well, I know we were older... and perhaps wiser.
We visited each other on occasion and then one day we heard that while visiting Florida, P&J had made a somewhat precipitous decision to buy a lot in Lakewood Ranch, near Bradenton, and build their next "forever" house. They're still there. Each year during our Sanibel sojourn, Penny and I have met at the Miromar Outlets in Estero for a day of shopping, and more importantly, chatting non-stop to catch up with each other.
This year, we decided to prolong the visit and I went up to Lakewood Ranch for an overnight visit. What a wonderful time we had: shopping in St. Armand's Circle, where we bumped into a former neighbor who later owned the house across the street where the boys coasted to their stop by the tree; talking non-stop from beginning to end; and finishing up with BROWNIES FOR BREAKFAST!!
What a treat! and what a treat to visit with Penny and Jim. We had a wonderful time together, telling old stories and showing off pictures of our grandchildren to each other. We're already planning next year's visit, and will keep our reunions going "forever." Love you guys!
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