Friday Flashback....My friend Joanne

So this picture was taken about 26 years ago in my Grandma's living room. It was about this time of year too. I was 3 years old and sitting next to my new friend Joanne. My Uncle Nate met her when he was on a trip to Canada. I remember I instantly loved her and she played with me everyday while she was here. The Dog in the picture is Sandy and I think she was Uncle Nate's dog that my Grandmother inherited when he joined the Navy. She was such a sweet dog!

Long story short though...our family had a real connection with Joanne and we have stayed in touch all these years. And it was such a great surprise when she and her husband Joe decided to drive all the way from Canada down to Florida to take a trip to Disney World with their two kids. We thought they were crazy for driving that far! But we did convince them that they would need a car with an air conditioner thankfully, otherwise I think they probably would have melted down here in the south. When they left Disney they made the drive to my Grandma's house and we got to see her again! Except I was 20 instead of 3. We got to meet her husband and her kids, Janet and Brad. We already felt like we new them because of all the letters and pictures we had exchanged over the years. They are a great family and they feel like they are practically part of ours.

The unfortunate thing about the few days they were here was that they arrived on September 10th, 2001. We all know what we woke up to the next day. I hate the memory of 9/11 but I really hate that we experienced it that day with them. We had so much planned to do with them but none of us really felt like it. I still took them a couple of places but everything was closed except for a few stores like Walmart and Target. But on a happy note...I took them to Chick-fil-a for dinner because they had never heard of it and thought the Chicken was funny. We enjoyed our delicious meal of chicken sandwiches and we had a good time visiting them. We still keep in touch and talk often. And our southern talking has always cracked them up, so here ya go Joanne...Love YA'LL!

Happy Friday!