New Friend

It's funny to find a new friend later in life. A friend you never expected to find. I found mine on an airplane...flying to Cancun Mexico for the first time. The flight was of course, overbooked, and I was not sitting with my husband like usual, instead I was sitting next to a woman wearing sunglasses (on the plane.) It struck me as kind of odd, but not too odd, it was just something I noticed about this particular woman.
We shared the common airplane dialogue at first "So, is this your first time to Cancun?" "Yes, I'm a travel agent and I've never been." "Oh cool, that sounds like a fun job." "Well, I do it for the perks of traveling, I love traveling..." "What about you? First time to Riviera Maya?" "Yes, my husband is from Mexico, but I've never been to Cancun." From there until after take off, we were pretty much quiet. Both of us making silent gestures to our husbands from across the plane.
Then as we soared over the DC metropolitan, simultaneously we both exhaled "Good to get out before the snow!" We laughed, since in fact our flight was one to leave before a huge blizzard was predicted to attack the DC area...one that we would find out later would leave over 56in of snow on the ground! We smiled as we both knew what we were flying out of and could only imagine the tropical bliss we'd be flying into. My new friend explained that her and her husband decided to fly out when they'd learned of the blizzard's arrival and that they would only be gone for about 3days. My husband and I had planned the trip for months, and were also looking forward to getting some sun and meeting up with his family at the beach.
Before I knew it, the 4hr plane ride to Cancun passed in the blink of an eye. My new friend and I talked almost the whole entire plane ride, for four hours straight...which is pretty much a testament to any new relationship! She shared with me intimate private details of an injury she'd incurred about ten years prior, hence the sunglasses, and I was amazed and in awe of her candor. Listening to her was like hearing one of those miraculous stories on Oprah... So and so has a brain hemorrhage, falls in the shower in the apartment she lives in alone, manages to crawl to a phone even though she temporarily loses her vision, calls the police, spends 6 months in the hospital, recovers, and is now a walking/talking miracle! Talking with my friend was just a reminder of how lucky I am and how good life is...things I need to think about and be thankful for!
As we descended into Cancun, our plane decided to follow some bumping and grinding choreography. All of us on the plane were tousled back and forth in our seats, at one point my friend grabbed my hand mid-air as I tried to reach for the seat in front of me. It was such a knee jerk reaction that we both had, it provided some much needed comic relief as we laughed loudly at the incident, both our husbands looking back at their crazy wives.
After we got off the plane, we passed each other in the customs line a few times, smiling. I even explained to her husband that his wife was now my new best friend, and he looked down and smiled at her, not surprised! From there I thought we'd never see each other again... a great plane conversation and that was it...
But then on our way back to DC 8 days later, low and behold...who did I see sitting at our terminal, my friend! I walked over and asked "Hey, weren't you suppose to have gone back like 5days ago?" She laughed, not expecting to see me either and explained that they'd spent the last 5days trying to get back, but couldn't because of the snow. We both laughed, it was great! From there we exchanged email's and said we should keep in touch (since she was sitting in first class, I knew I wouldn't be sitting next to her on the way back.)
Ever since then...we chat almost daily! It's great...I have a new unexpected friend, the best kind of friend!