It's another grey, squally day in Grey County. We managed to get out yesterday to load up on provisions, and Friday was miraculously clear. The sun even came out!
I was so happy, because twice before during this wintery winter I had to take a pass on my Ladies Who Lunch in Guelph because of storms. I have been organizing this wee gathering with my colleagues from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for quite a few years now.
So I was able to travel for once. Picked up Carmelle in Mount Forest and zoomed down south. YAY.
Forgot to take a picture this time...too busy visiting. But we have done many of them in the past, so I thought I'd do some ruminating about my good friends, most of whom still live in Guelph.
This one's from July, 2023. The crew includes Helene, whose eye is in the left corner, Pat, Ornella, Susan, Vivian and moi. We were at Atmosphere restaurant, and it was a sunny, beautiful day.
These lunches are an opportunity to catch up with one another's lives, find out about how children are doing and laugh ( or grump) about the state of the world. We do have a lot of fun. Most of us are retired - except Ornella and Susan. I think they're both seriously considering joining the retiree crowd. Hope so. It's been great for me.
While the makeup of the gathering morphs and changes depending on people's schedules, it always recharges my soul to chat with these lovelies. I'm so grateful for all of them. Even the ones who are no longer with us, like Pat.
On Friday, Helene mentioned her and we did a little reminiscing about Pat. Elizabeth, who's on the front left in the picture below, is also gone. Cripes our numbers are thinning.
Anyhow, this photo was taken in April, 2019. Joan Krantzberg, who's sitting beside Elizabeth, came up from Toronto specially to have lunch with us at Buon Gusto in the heart of downtown. Joan was our director of communications WAAAYYYY back before 1996 when the ministry was still located in Toronto. She told me at Pat's celebration of life that our time together were the best years of her career. I'm right there with her.
The ladies always thank me profusely for organizing the lunch. It's me who's most grateful though. All I have to do is write a few emails and make a phone call. How hard is that? Especially when the payoff is so amazing. Until next week.
Gratuitous cat photo courtesy of Bea(trix) Potter, our eldest at 16+, who just keeps chugging along. How beautiful is she?
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