This past January, my husband's grandmother celebrated her 91st birthday.  Her dearest friend, Eleanor, gave her a lovely luncheon complete with flowers and china.  I love to see these two ladies share company.  Their love for one another is very apparent.

They met years before when they found themselves neighbors.  Their friendship blossomed into a lifetime heart connection.  Jobs and opportunities took them to different areas for a time, but their friendship never wavered or lacked.  Eventually they found themselves (on purpose this time) neighbors once again.

I love to hear stories of their antics.  Lucy is a bit of a dare devil and an adventure seeker, whereas Eleanor would be a bit more reserved.  The combination has turned out to be a good one, because I am sure that Eleanor kept Lucy out of a bundle of trouble.  A story is told of the two of them passing a tent where a group of folks were having an elegant dinner affair. (This was only a few years ago.) I am not sure what the event was...politics...a wedding...who can tell.  (Ok...I just received an update from Lucy herself...it was a governors luncheon given for the volunteers in the state of Maryland.  This bold little lady....Lucy...told me that she walked up to people with name tags and called them by name pretending to know who they were and carried on conversations with them while her dear friend Eleanor was sputtering and red faced. Ha!)  Lucy coaxed Eleanor to follow her as she proceeded to walk up to the buffet, uninvited, and filled a plate.  They both moved through the crowd as though they belonged and enjoyed an unexpected afternoon of food and fun.  No one dared question these two elegant ladies. 

Lucy and Eleanor

Notice in the picture the colorful Fiestaware.  Eleanor received a complete set as a wedding gift.  These are the original pieces.  Her daughter told me that as a kid, she was always humiliated to have friends over for meals because they didn't have matching dishes.  I think she still holds a secret animosity toward the set to this day.  

The friendship that these two ladies share is so very rare and one in which we could all learn.  I hope that there will be friendships in my senior years that I have maintained as carefully and lovingly as Lucy and Eleanor.