In late 1990 however, Jerry showed up at my parents place one day just as I was heading out the door to go skateboarding. I was surprised and taken back to see the infamous "S.E." parked in my driveway with Jerry sitting nervously behind the wheel. As soon as he saw me, he jumped out of the car with tons of enthusiasm and energy. After all, it had been over a year since we had seen or even spoken to one another. Before I could even pass a word between my lips, Jerry insisted that I hear him out. It ended up he had broken up with his girlfriend and made the realization that he had completely neglected and ignored his friends for the last year.
I could understand why he felt guilty about that, but I couldn't fathom to what levels of depth his guilt lay with, and they were much deeper than I had expected. Jerry apologized for his disappearing act that he had just pulled for the last 12 months, but he went on adamantly about it, professing that deep down inside of him he figured out I was his truest best friend, which was a bit shocking to me as I always thought Craig and him were closer. I suppose when Craig branched off with Phil, Jerry saw that I was still there for him as a friend, even though he also chose to "abandon" me around the same time.
Regardless of whatever caused this epiphany in him, Jer made a point of apologizing endlessly while continuously reassuring me that we would be best of friends until the end. The story got even deeper as he confided to me that he felt I was the one person solely responsible for him having "a life" as he put it, meaning all the cool things he had done, the places he had went, and the people he had met, many of which had become friends of his by this point. Jerry swore up and down that if it wasn't for me taking a chance on a goofy, but loveable guy in grade 6, he wouldn't have enjoyed his life to the quality he had up until this moment.
With that he swore his undying devotion to me as a best friend, and promised he would never disappear from my life again. Looking back now from this present moment in 2013, there were a few gaps of time over the years that we didn't see or talk to each other for extends periods, yet when we did get in touch with each other it was as if we had come full circle and never skipped a beat. In my mind that is the ultimate element to a true friendship or connection between friends. To this day we are still best friends, Jerry was the best man at my wedding, and we even live in the same town once again. We get together once a week, sometimes twice, and we are still both very inspiring to one another.
I can still remember him parked in my parents driveway like it was yesterday. After he was finished saying his piece, I got in the car with him and we drove off, wandering the streets aimlessly as we theorized and hypothesized about how we would be as friends when we hit our 90's... Only 50 more years to go my friend...
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| Pic my mom took the night of our re-union. X-mas 90/91' |
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