Despite the rain and overcast conditions on Sunday, we headed off to the small country town of Baden, about 10 minutes from Kitchener, one hour from Oakville and the home of Sharilou and Mark.

Since 1987, Sharilou and I have only met once, that being last month. This time, we were going to be able to share our families, our stories and start to put together the pieces of our respective puzzles which have made up our different lives over the past 19 years.

Mark entertained us with stories of his work with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and fielded, very successfully, my hundred and one questions. Rebecca in Grade 10 and Trevor in Grade 7 are great kids and entertained Alex and Kate quite well for many hours. We then all enjoyed a wonderful dinner together, shared stories and had a laugh.

Sharilou seemed surprised when last month I showed her a slide show that Chris made for me for a milestone birthday recently which featured two photos of her taken with Elyse and I in Europe. I was equally blown away though, when during lunch, she pointed to an Egyptian papyrus, which was framed and hanging on her wall above her dining table. Although I don’t actually recall doing it, apparently I sent this to Sharilou from Egypt when Elyse and I visited there before returning home to Australia. I guess when you really connect with someone, neither time nor distance sever that bond.

We have already scheduled our next get-together and I am just so grateful that our exchange has provided opportunities to not only make some incredible new friends, but a chance to become reacquainted with a very dear ‘old’ friend.