Lessons from my mother. Part 5

Make new friends, but keep the old.  One is silver and the other is gold.

This is a song I learned when I was young.  And how true it is.

My mother had many friends.  She was an outgoing, friendly person and people just naturally gravitated to her.  Never lacking for something say to a stranger, she would often be able to keep up a conversation with anyone for as long as they wanted to talk...or listen.

Her old friends, such as Maxine Lord, pictured above, were some of her best friends.  Mom and Maxine were about the same age.  Joe Lord and my dad were about the same age too.  Long before my mom came on the scene, Dad was friends with the Lord family.  I guess they had some adventures....just hints now and then came to my young ears.   After my dad passed away my mom really came to depend on Maxine to be her 'listening ear'.  I know that Joe and Maxine were such a help when Mom had to make decisions.  What would we have done without their support?  I came upon a letter Maxine wrote to my mom when she was in Florida.  I won't go into the content, but it was a wonderful thing.  I have kept it because it is so full of wonderful, caring advice.  Maxine was truly a friend of the gold variety.

Mom made friends where ever she went.  We would go to Florida to visit and each time there would be new people she had met that were included in any gathering we had.  She was a good cook, and she could make any occasion one to remember.  Sometimes things would not turn out as planned, but everyone had a good time.  And when she moved in with me she kept on making friends.  Many of them were people that Andy and I knew from church and the community.  But some were friends she made during her visits to the doctor, or people she had met in the grocery store.  They all became her friends.  These were of the silver variety, but they were friends nevertheless.

The lesson I learned from my mom is this.  Never lose track of old friends.  They are tried and true.  But be sure and keep your new friends.  They will be friends for life too.

Thank you Mom for teaching me about friendship.