{"id":499,"date":"2008-01-27T15:08:34","date_gmt":"2008-01-27T19:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=499"},"modified":"2008-10-18T22:52:40","modified_gmt":"2008-10-19T02:52:40","slug":"fishing-buddies-fish-fry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=499","title":{"rendered":"Fishing Buddies Fish Fry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">I have some dear friends I love to visit.\u00c2\u00a0 I first met them after they followed us at our church in Bamberg after my husband died and they became the new ministerial family there.\u00c2\u00a0 He, like my husband, got very sick while he was there and more than once almost died.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually he made a remarkable recovery and has been cancer free for years now.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">After they retired they moved to Edisto Beach. He loves to shrimp and his wife could care less for it, so we became shrimping and fishing buddies over the next 20 years.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have loads of fishing buddies, but we did manage to find some time during each year to go out in the boat at least a couple of times.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never forget the time we went out one morning when it was so foggy you could not see your hand stretched out in front of you. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">That, actually, was the best shrimping we ever did that day. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve sold their place at the beach and moved closer to family now. It takes less than an hour for me to get there by car. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">About two months ago my fishing buddy heard news he never wanted to hear again.\u00c2\u00a0 He body was about to shut down so he headed straight back to his oncologist who treated him years before.\u00c2\u00a0 The news was grim but they decided to fight it with everything they could. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">He goes almost daily for treatments an hour away from their home.\u00c2\u00a0 He has had ups and downs, has put things in order as much as possible, and is living his life daily to the fullest possible extent. They are both very brave people and were so glad to make it through Christmas and the holidays to be with their family. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">Right before January, I got an invitation to their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fishing Buddies Fish Fry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to be held on January 26th.\u00c2\u00a0 They only invited fishing buddies and their spouse or significant other.\u00c2\u00a0 I marked the calendar and knew I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss it for the world. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">I arrived to see lots of trucks in the yard.\u00c2\u00a0 I figured most of the fishing buddies were guys&#8230;and, in fact&#8230;the truth of the matter is I was the only woman among the buddies&#8230;a position I felt most honored to have. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">We visited and had a great time.\u00c2\u00a0 The guys were fun to be with. Their wives (all were married but me) were just as delightful and down-to-earth.\u00c2\u00a0 It was so good to finally put names and faces together and share that time with all of them. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">Most of us left suspecting we may never fish again with our friend.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of us came from as far as six hours away.\u00c2\u00a0 The trip was worth it for all of us&#8230;one more chance to see our good fishing buddy and his wife.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><strong>My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you take the time to visit with friends and reminisce when you can.\u00c2\u00a0 Even if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re young, there is something very comforting in taking the time to enjoy each other&#8217;s company. \u00c2\u00a0It makes us all remember that life is precious. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: normal normal normal 12px\/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px\"><span style=\"letter-spacing: 0px\">~ Joellen<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have some dear friends I love to visit.\u00c2\u00a0 I first met them after they followed us at our church in Bamberg after my husband died and they became the new ministerial family there.\u00c2\u00a0 He, like my husband, got very sick while he was there and more than once almost died.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually he made a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,41,37,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familyfriends-gatherings","category-health","category-illness","category-living-life-to-the-fullest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}