Friendship is an odd phenomenon. My friend Terrie Ann and I have been friends since we were in first grade together. In the years since we graduated from high school, we hardly ever talk and rarely see each other. We keep contact enough, though, through the years so that I still consider her dear. I don’t have to explain who I am to her, she already knows. Our knowledge of each other is like a favorite t-shirt or like mac and cheese. Comfort food for my soul – just knowing she is there and on my side is precious.
When I was doing research for Peaks and Valleys, I was fortunate enough to get in contact with a woman named Mary Jane. She is the granddaughter of the couple who owned the general mercantile store in Encampment, Wyoming at the turn of the century, and they became part of the foundation of the town and its history. Mary Jane’s mother was one of two women, 50 years ago, who began the Grand Encampment Museum, which is an integral part of my research. Mary Jane and I have fostered an email connection for the past three or so years. We have chatted back and forth mostly in an effort to help me understand those times better. When our correspondence began, we knew very little about one another, but we had one thing in common, and that is a love and passion for Encampment’s history. As we e-chatted, though, I began to understand a tiny bit about this woman’s life and her bubbly and welcoming personality. I had never seen her face or heard her voice, but we had become friends.
This weekend was the 50th Anniversary of the Encampment Museum, and by the greatest stroke of luck, Mary Jane was able to come for the festivities and so was I. What a joy to see and hug my friend. What a blessing to hear her voice and memorize the sound of her laughter. The house her grandparents built, and in which Mary Jane lived as she was growing up, has been moved to the museum property. I was able to sit for a while with Mary Jane and two of her children in that house and just absorb the history – her history – and enjoy being in the company of a fine and beautiful woman. I learned a lot about her life this weekend, both from her and from others who spoke to me about her. Her life is one of selfless joy, hardship and optimism, and I am so much richer in my own soul and heart as a result of being with her. If Terrie Ann is my mac and cheese, then Mary Jane has become my creme brulee- a special treat of sweetness and light.
Mary Jane and me at the Parkison House. The pictures on the wall are of Ed and Ella Parkison, her grandparents.
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