Maggie Mae

The phone rang at about 9:00 last Sunday night. I picked it up not expecting anyone special on the other end ... but then I heard this: "Hi CJ!" And I screamed! And she screamed! It was my roommate, Robbie, calling me from Florida. It had been over a year since I had heard her voice. There are few people in the world that I love like I do her ~ and what's weird is this: we were only roommates for our freshman year, and one semester of our sophomore year!
Thirty-seven years ago right now (!) we were freshmen at what was then Grand Rapids Baptist College. I was coming there from Detroit, she from Racine, Wisconsin (just a little north of Milwaukee). I walked over to Miller dorm, found my room, went through the door and there she was! She introduced herself, smiled her wonderful smile, and it was instant friendship! Do you know the definition of a kindred spirit? I'm not sure I've ever really seen it defined, but to me, it's someone who is always on the same page as you ... someone who you can start a sentence and they can accurately finish it for you! And laugh ... and cry ...
I don't think I have laughed harder with anyone on this earth. I love her dearly. She is one tough lady too. She and her husband Scott (who stole her from me during our sophomore year) spent a few years as missionaries to Chad, Africa as well as many years living on a houseboat (if I'm not mistaken) along the Amazon River in Peru. They had an iguana and monkeys for pets! And she's not afraid of insects (good thing, living along the Amazon, huh?).

Anyway, she called Sunday night to say she had received my invitation to join Facebook (which, by the way, I am totally addicted to). So we're working on getting her signed up, but she has some computer issues that are preventing that. We talked for over an hour, every minute pure joy!

Oh, and what's with the Maggie Mae title? Well, that was her college nickname! We all had nicknames at college ... I'm not kidding! Mine was "Gatelady" (serious!) as well as "CJ", and Robbie's was "Maggie Mae" because her middle name is Margaret (which she hates). At dinner one night, one of us shortened Margaret down to Maggie and it was the fall of 1971 ... Rod Stewart's song Maggie Mae had been #1 for weeks and weeks ... so Maggie Mae she was ... though not at all a loose woman as the song would suggest. But that was 37 years ago now. And yet years can go by without us conversing, she can call me, and in one second we are screaming, laughing, reminiscing ... so wonderful to hear her voice! Here's to you, Maggie Mae!