My life is very different today than it was 25 years ago; not better, not worse, just different. Today, I am a middle school teacher, a published author, and a historian. My husband and I enjoy our quiet life, which allows us time for creativity and staying in touch with our grown children and grandchildren. 

Twenty-five years ago, I chose to stay home with our kids as they were growing up. I made everything from scratch, took care of the yard, did the shopping, and ran kids to appointments and activities.

Twenty-five years ago, I also spent time each week with my best friend, Sharen. She was inspiring! She ran, lifted weights, and rode her bike. She also prepared delicious and healthy meals. She was incredibly creative and organized her home to always look amazing.

Sharen lived less than a mile away from me, and she was the type of friend that I could stop by her house unannounced, knock on her door, and then just walk in. Since neither of us worked outside of the home at the time, we were able to get together once a week and do crafts. Sharen was very organized, so we started making Christmas gifts in January. During our craft days, we created gifts, garden decor, decorations, gift tags, canned goods, and wrapping paper. 

On these weekly craft days, we spent about four hours together, working, creating, and talking. We talked about books, worries, our families, religion, and our lives growing up. We discussed our goals, dreams, and struggles. And every week, we talked about how we planned to be crazy old ladies together one day. 

Sharen enjoyed music, and one of her favorite groups was The Barenaked Ladies. (The guys in the band came up with that name when they were young, because barenaked ladies were the most horrible thing they could think of.)

Many times, Sharen and I listened to music while we crafted, and often it was one of the Barenaked Ladies’ albums. One of their fun songs is “Another Postcard.” It is about someone moving to another country, then one day they start receiving postcards with chimpanzees on them from an admirer overseas. 

After several years, Sharen’s husband got accepted to earn his PhD in Scotland. I was happy for them, but I really missed Sharen. Technology was different back then. The internet wasn’t yet a thing, and making long-distance calls was prohibitive. So, Sharen and I wrote letters to each other.

Sometimes, when I missed her, I played some of the albums we used to listen to together. One evening, as I was making supper, the song “Another Postcard” came on, and I had the brilliant idea to start sending Sharen postcards with chimpanzees on them. As I mentioned earlier, technology was not as advanced as it is today, so it was challenging to find pictures of chimpanzees to create the postcards; however, I managed to do so. After making dozens of them, I contacted people who knew Sharen and had them write her a note on one of the postcards. Then, I collected them and sent two or three postcards to her each day for a month, until she had received them all. 

She was confused at first, but then delighted with all the mail she was receiving. She hung all of the postcards up around the entrance of the hall in their little flat in Scotland. She said that the postman was intrigued, because he told her that he didn’t know where all these wee little postcards were coming from. 

Sharen and her husband eventually moved back to the States and lived further south of my husband and me, so we weren’t able to get together as much. However, we still made it a priority to do crafts together once a month, creating, talking, and laughing together.

Fifteen years ago this week, Sharen didn’t feel well. Her husband took her to the hospital. Shortly after she arrived there, she slipped into unconsciousness, and the doctors told her husband she had acute leukemia. Sharen died within a few hours. Fifteen years is a long time, but I still miss her nearly every day. 

So, I guess the lesson to learn from the Parable of the Naked Ladies and Chimpanzees is to enjoy life and do silly things to make memories. No matter how simple or crazy they may be, you will never regret the nice things you did for people while they were with you.