Mimi
Mimi was my first, my very first childhood friend. She used to live in the apartment upstairs from us, in the building where I was born. We only had two months of age difference and we were always together. She must have been the first child I played with before the age of 3 and a half, when my sister was born. I don’t have that many memories of my early childhood, but I remember her SO well, as well as her parents and her older sister. I remember how I would run up the stairs and ring her doorbell, and the particular sound of that bell, and I remember her mother, a beautiful, beautiful lady, opening the door and calling her, “Mimi !” We were the best friends ever and I don’t remember one single time having been upset or angry at her.
Unfortunately, my family moved when I was 7 and I had to say goodbye to Mimi. I saw her again from time to time, then we moved again, even farther. Since my uncle had bought our first appartment, I bumped into her a few times when I would visit him. Then our roads went completely separate and I never heard about her again.
Today, I was looking at some of my childhood pictures and even though I don’t have any pictures of me with her, for some reason her name came back to my mind. I decided to make a search on Facebook and I found someone with her name. I was not 100 % sure it was her, because she now has the name of her husband attached to hers, but I gave it a try.
And it was her. She answered me a few hours later, instantly taking me back to when I was 3. I cannot even describe the joy that this brought me. Her profile pictures show her glowing with happiness, she has been married for 17 years with a wonderful man and she has 2 adorable daughters. We’ve exchanged many long messages all evening, and we’re planning on seeing each other very soon.
And the most incredible thing about this story is that she told me : “Anne, this is amazing. I was looking for you on Facebook no later than yesterday, because my mom told me that she passed by your uncle the other day. But I had made a mistake spelling your last name and I couldn’t find you.”
Even though it’s 35 years since we have been away from each other, we looked for each other almost at the same moment. And now that we have found each other, it seems like we just left each other yesterday.
Life is truly amazing.
