"L" - Let's Hear It for the Ladies

Today I met with my ladies' club. We didn't dress up, or have a program of cultural or literary interest, or serve tea, or give a door prize, or charge dues, or give membership cards. We had no mission or service project, unless you count the support that we give to one another. But this group remains one of the more important involvements of my life.

This group of women, all once involved in education, have met since the 1970's. It began as a little recreational time out for those of us busy teaching together and raising young families. In the 1970's we all taught at the same school, although several members have joined us from other places through the years. Originally, we decided to meet once a month in the evening at someone's home. Our program? We ate whatever snacks the hostess prepared , we talked, we
complained, we listened, but mostly we laughed. Through the years we have tried playing cards and doing crafts. But, frankly, those pursuits interfered with the talk! During those busy years there was hardly a month when either the day or place of our meeting wasn't changed at least once because of the complexities of our lives.

Why would such an informal, unplanned group of women friends stay together and be important? Well, I think all young women should know that, important as our careers, our families, and our husbands are to us, women need women friends. Women need that safe place to vent their frustrations, and simply find sympathetic listeners. They need a place to find the absurd in things too serious, and feel relief in the laughter.

In the 1970's we coped with children's antics. In the 1980's we fretted over Teen Terrors and aging parents. In the 1990's we began planning for and rejoicing in the idea of retirement. And during this last decade, we are all retired, but dealing with our physical frailties. Of course, through all those years, we needed a place to complain about those irritating husbandly habits, God bless 'em.

At some point during those forty years, we began taking a short summer trip together - our little few day summer retreat. We have gone to Hueston Woods, to Bearcreek Farms, and often to
Lake Freeman. In fact, six of us ended up buying places at Lake Freeman. After that the retreat became quite a movable feast!

Anyway, these women have become the sisters that we didn't have - without the family jealousies. We've held one another's hands through changing jobs, changing schools, good and bad students, good and bad principals, and losing parents, kids, and spouses. Sadly, too' we've comforted one another when we have lost some of our "sisters".

Now we meet twice a month for lunch at a restaurant - our no-fuss approach to maintaining our sisterhood. We are still talking non-stop, laughing non-stop, and eating. Often now our talk is about our health: insurance, doctors, hospitals, prescriptions, and the current state of our well-being. Then we stop and laugh, wondering what we used to talk about. Then we decide that when we are all well once again at the same time, we are going to definitely make another summer retreat. Keep the faith, girls, we will get there!