Friends, Memories and Sex and the City

I lost a dear friend this past year. She died before I had a chance to say goodbye.  We were friends for over 30 years and I will truly miss her.  I attended a memorial held by her sons at which they asked everyone to fill out cards with memories of their mother.  We had become friends when we worked together, (there was a gaggle of us, all around the same age and all single mothers) at the same company. One of the other ladies in our group attended the memorial with me and when asked for memories of their mom, we looked at her sons and said "Our lips are sealed".  We were a wild and crazy bunch and there are stories about those years which I will take to my grave.  I did tell them that we were the "Sex and the City" girls long before anyone had thought to write about it. They asked which one their mother was but I declined to answer. It was better for them to remember their mother as the loving, wonderful lady she was.  Besides, I didn't think I could explain why she was the Samantha Jones of our group. Just didn't seem appropriate.

I had lunch with one of the sons recently and he kept pushing for a story.  He knew all the characters involved as we had all been to each other's homes and had babysat for each other when needed.  I finally did tell him one story, and here it is and it's an honest to God true story.

We all worked for a company that managed apartment communities.  A couple of the ladies in our group were chosen to manage a brand new complex and had moved into the apartments and begun working on leasing up the community.  One evening the group of us had gathered together at the rental office in this community for a little get together.  As I recall there were several adult beverages consumed that evening and at one point the new manager exclaimed "Hey, the pool was finished and filled with water today---Let's all go take a swim:".  Of course no one had brought their bathing suit so we decided to go skinny dipping. We shed our clothes and ran out to the pool which was situated immediately behind the rental office. As a brand new apartment complex, there were not many apartments occupied at that time, but there were a few.  Of course we were all laughing and shrieking in the pool and making some noise.  At one point we heard sirens coming into the complex and we all jumped out of the pool and ran back into the office via the back door.  We had quickly thrown our clothes on when there was a knock at the door. It was the police responding to a noise complaint.  They had seen the lights on in the office and thought they might find someone in charge to speak to.  The manager answered the door and explained to the police that we had not heard anything and that they could leave as there was nothing to worry about.  Of course she was explaining this with wet hair dripping all over.  The rest of us hid in the back office and peeked around the door. The officer gave her quite a look but decided that he and his partner could leave.  They left and we all collapsed into a heap of wet hair and giggles.

No one was arrested, well not that night at any rate, and we all went on to have more adventures and get into and out of all kinds of trouble. But, my lips are now sealed, and those stories will not be repeated to protect the innocent, and not quite so innocent.

P.S. Don't ask me which "one" I was. I'll never tell!