Saturday, February 05, 2011

Best Friends Forever

Cedar Crest Lodge is located just outside of Pleasanton KS, about 50 miles south of Kansas City, just north of Ft. Scott, KS, and across the state line from Nevada MO - a great location. I urge you to check out their website and find a time when you can go spend a night. The rooms are a delight, the meals are amazing (I recommend you also make plans for dinner there), the views are spectacular, and this past week some very special old friends met there for a wonderful time of visiting, knitting, quilting, with lots of laughter. Sitting beside Carla (in the valentine vest) is Nancy Rabe from Marshall MO, and across the table sits Gretchen Bearce from Pella IA and me. The Bearces and the Rabes became friends in the mid-60's when their husbands were both associated with Missouri Valley College. The Hiltons moved to Marshall in 1972, and from then on we were all part of one big family - from the college crowd to our church family at Covenant Presbyterian to neighbors. Our 3 families were all originals in the Apple Butter project as well. Carla has visited both of these family friends at their summer homes in northern Wisconsin and Michigan...and now enjoys my friends as much as I do (now that they are no longer being surrogate mothers to her!) A couple of years ago, after Carla visited both of them up north, she commented to me how much fun it was to be friends as adults with Nancy and Gretchen, and not as "Mary & Jerry's daughter". There is a big change in perspective and world view in that observation! Nancy and I showed up at the B&B with the same marvelous flannel nightgowns, which is a favorite for each of us-I had given Nancy hers for a birthday a couple of years ago! The next morning, as we gathered for our superb breakfast served by the owners, Matt & Laura, we were surprised with a visit from Phyllis Garrett, who lives in Monett MO--we've all been friends from those days in Marshall, and in 1977, the Garretts joined the Bearces and Hiltons on a British trip. So we all have many many memories that we share, and this was another memory-maker visit.

2 comments:

Janelle Worley said...

How wonderful to have life-long friends like that! You are so blessed and certainly have a gift for being a good friend! Hugs, Lady J

Notes from Stickery Thicket said...

Hi Mary - It is around 4 a.m. and I am catching up on your blog. You have a deeply enriched life with so many friends and experiences that I am in awe. But you and Jerry put so much into life. . .and you get so very much in return.

George Clemens would like information about how to contact Carla and he and his new wife Ruth would like to go to the B&B. Can you send me info? Carol R.

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