What are the odds..

[Amy in Vermont]

I've been on line for 15 years. I've been on message boards and chat rooms and all manner of social sites in that time. I've made some really wonderful friends in that time.

Tonite, for the very first time, I was in a chat room and "met" someone I already knew... someone I grew up with! I am actually amazed it took this long, but seriously, how cool it that!

This person was someone I rode horses with and hung out with and shared friends with and probably had not seen in 40 years! Neither of us knew the other was gay. We were in a lesbian chat room on AOL and somehow the group conversation turned to riding instructors, New Hampshire, Mt. Ascutney (all things we had in common)... and then the where do you live question.. and I mentioned that I grew up in Bedford MA.. and then this person said so did she... What street... etc.. etc...

Anyhow... it was fun to re-kindle a friendship... what are the odds?

[Mary6906]

What a great story, Amy..... glad you connected.... yeah what are the odds on that.

I connected with a long-lost karate instructor friend of mine through an AOL chatroom, too. I hadn't seen him in about 16 years, our conversation turned to Okinawa and who our instructors were, and I realized I had met him while he was visiting Okinawa from the US back in 1983... so we eventually met up all these years later. He now has a school in NJ.

[DaveM]

This will sound strange, Amy, but I have a horror of having a similar experience. By and large, people who are part of my past belong there, and with a couple of exceptions, should they resurface, about all they could bring is pain.

Most notably (of course) is one of the dreaded ex-girlfriends, who I know has made a few efforts to locate me via various Internet resources during the past year. I know a little of her life since we parted company and want no part of it (trust me, no one would). There are times when I open up my email Inbox with a trace of anxiety.

Several years ago, I saw a Japanese horror movie in which at one point, the narrator asks: "what if someone from your past came into your life again and you discovered that they knew all about you? And if they did, what would you say to them?" The words haunt me because, while there are a couple of people to whom I would say "I'm so happy to see you again!" there are so many others to whom I could only say: "it was another time, and that's where you belong. Things were reasonably stable as they were. Why did you come back?"

There is one who I would welcome with every possible enthusiasm and outstretched arm even if she were to appear to me tonight. I say that even though April will mark the 11th anniversary of her death.

[Bat]

Ah, Dave...they say the good die young, and all too often it is true. Just be glad she graced your life for as long as she did, and never forget. It's all one can do in order to cope with special losses.

[DaveM]

So true....and she was a very special person. Of all I have known in this lifetime, I cannot think of another who made a more powerful impression or moved me in quite the same way.

And I still keep asking myself why life has such a bitter sense of irony.