Gerry

A friend of mine, Gerry, recently wrote to me. Incidentally, I have been thinking of her but more so during this week that she wrote to me - what can I say? Great minds think alike. Whenever we remember how we re-established contact, we really thank God for His hand in our friendship.

I knew Gerry from primary school and even though we were classmates, we were not close. She belonged to a different group of friends and she was studious and quiet, I was talkative and not as nice a gal (immature, I think) as I hope I am now.

We met again in junior college and by then, whenever we saw each other, we said hi and all, but that was about it, I think.

Then after I finished my uni studies, I was shopping in Marina Square and to this day I have no idea why, but I went up to her and greeted her enthusiastically and thankfully for me, she was just as excited to see me (a few days ago, I had enthusiastically greeted 2 friends from junior college I saw at Wisma Atria and we were fairly close at school but they gave me an icy reception and a weird look).

From then on, we never lost touch. We may not have spoken to each other for weeks or even months but we never ever lost this friendship. And what is even more precious and remarkable to me is that while we were working after our university studies, one year, we resolved to pray for each other weekly and used to send each other our prayer requests. That really cemented our friendship.

And I can be this obnoxious, irritable person sometimes, but Gerry accepts me nonetheless. And her gentleness and encouragement gives me a different perspective in life. It helps our friendship too that we're pretty crazy over the Japanese food at Tamako (128 Casuarina Road).

Besides Gerry, I have friends from work, school and church (I realise I better not list names cos I seem to leave out someone's name!!! Thank God for the many friends I have!!!) whose friendships I'm thankful for because no matter where we are or how long we haven't spoken, we are never strangers when we meet again.