Visiting Tim

Cumberland, MD

I can remember clearly the day I met Tim Snyder.  It was fifty years ago this month in French Class.  My first semester as a member of the class of 1968.  I was telling some girl about my adventures as a college dropout and Tim was listening in.  Before long Tim and I were not only talking about adventures but experiencing them.  He taught me how to sail and introduced me to caving.  We both joined the bagpipe band and piped our way across North Carolina.  We drove to Montreal in my VW over Christmas break.

Yesterday I paid Tim a visit at his home in Frostburg.  It seems that whenever we get together we start right in where we left off, as though no time had passed at all.  But this time he described to me how his girlfriend Nancy saved his life by getting to the hospital when he was having a heart attack.  Then the same night she died in a tragic head on collision on her way hoe from the hospital.  I shared his trauma and his grieving, but I am amazed at how well he seems to be holding up under the weight of it all.

It is so rewarding to me to have long term friendships.  I feel blessed to have Tim and friends like him in my life.  It is a web that binds us all together and the longer we live the stronger it seems to get.