Close Friends, Following Through With Marriage In Certain Circumstances, And After A Fire

Gregory Stock, Ph.D. The Book of Questions prompts — Do your close friends tend to be older or younger than you?

Because I am now seventy-one, it feels like it is about even older and younger, than one the same age. I have close friends who are 78, two in their early 80s, then a couple of close friends who are in their 60s and still working, and a close friend I went to high school with and we are three days apart.

My ceremony sisters are important to me and I have always learned so much from them. This group changes depending on the ceremony and where it is held, whether we can stay in touch or not.

Then there are my cancer survivor group and a few are older, and then most are close to my age. I mainly do things with two of them regularly but because of what we have in common it is very easy to spend time with any one of them.

In addition, I have friends in recovery that I see weekly that we don’t usually do anything outside of a meeting, and again, because of what we have in common, they are easy to spend time with too.

I consider my whole list close friends as I can call on anyone, anytime for support, and they would be there for me and I would be there for them too.

Gregory Stock, Ph.D. The Book of Questions prompts — What kind of people do you like to spend time with? What do such people bring out in you that others do not? What can people learn about you by looking at your friends?

Good, strong, kind women are who I like to spend time with. We laugh, cry, and pray together, despite having different spiritual beliefs. We are more like close sisters than friends.

Photo by Dario Valenzuela on Unsplash

Gregory Stock, Ph.D. The Book of Questions prompts — If the person you were engaged to marry had an accident and became a paraplegic, would you go through the marriage or back out of it?

In most cases, I would hope that love was there and that would not change anything. I do know someone who was in an accident, became paraplegic, and was in a nursing home for the rest of his life. At my age, I wouldn’t be able to care for someone in my home with that disability.

Once I heard someone about my age when talking about marriage say, “Well, it depends on if he has money, is close to death, and has one foot on a banana peel, as that is the only way I will ever marry again.”

Then my mother asked me when I told her I was going to marry my charm, “Are you trying to catch Liz?” We laughed after I told her, maybe if I live long enough!

Gregory Stock, Ph.D. The Book of Questions prompts — Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire; after saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be?

It would probably mean grabbing my purse, my external hard drive and my laptop case with thumb drives. To recreate that would be difficult, if not impossible. Many of my photos are stored there too. If I could grab one thing — the external drive with lots of photos would come first.

We have a safe with other important documents, that are worth something and that should survive a fire.

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First published by Mercury Press on medium.com