An Unexpected Guest

My dental hygiene class was made up of 35 people. Like any situation, there were cliques within my class, and people broke off into little groups of friends. My best friend in hygiene school was Naomi. When I first met Naomi, I was struck by how kind she is. She is genuinely one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is easy to talk to and made me feel comfortable right away. Naomi and I only lived a few minutes away from each other, and all through hygiene school we commuted into school together - first on the city bus, then trading off driving. We were an unlikely match as friends. Naomi is religious, she doesn't drink, is quite modest, doesn't swear, and didn't date anyone for most of the time I knew her in school. Pretty much the opposite of me. However unlikely a match, we always had fun together and bonded over our mutual silliness, love of Christmas music, and excitement about the holidays.

After graduation, I moved to Montana to start working. Naomi moved back to her family home in Washington. A year after graduating Naomi married Steven, and I was privileged to be a part of the ceremony. Steven is in the Navy, and because of his job they have moved around several times in the last few years. The last time I saw Naomi was in 2011 when she came to my wedding reception (and at that time I didn't get to see a lot of her). We keep in touch with random emails, but it is always hard to keep in touch with people.

Naomi had emailed me a few months ago to tell me they would be moving to Hawaii in the fall. I had emailed a response back to her, but hadn't heard from her since. Then, out of the blue, I got an email from Naomi stating they had taken a military space available flight from the states to Ramstein, and she was hoping I was close to that area and would be able to meet up. Surprised doesn't even begin to describe how I felt. I only live an hour from Ramstein, and I work in Ramstein, so I was happy to drive and meet up with them.

I picked up Naomi and Steven on base. One of the many things I love about Naomi is she is one of those people who, no matter what, is happy to see you, and it feels as if there has been no loss of time between you. I decided to take them to Rothenburg for the day. It made for a long drive, and I knew it was a lot for a day trip, but since they weren't sure what their plans were, I wanted to make sure if nothing else that they saw one awesome "German" site. We mainly walked around the town so they could see it and take pictures, then we had dinner before I drove them back to their hotel. I gave them lots of advice on places to go visit while they were in Germany. I had to work for the rest of the week, then Josh and I had travel plans for the weekend... it was sad to know this brief encounter was going to be all I got to see of her while she was here. But, I am grateful she took the time to reach out to me. I love true, good friends who are always your friend across time and space. The moment you see each other again, it is like no time has passed.