Several few years ago, I was quite surprised to receive an email from Patricia Paris. She said, ”I Googled myself and found you! So, how are you and what’s in like in Tennessee? By the way, I go by Trish and I live in Christchurch, New Zealand.”

That email started a correspondence that has lasted for eight years and I feel that I know the Paris family in Christchurch. I’ve seen photos of their lovely home with its beautiful roof, and through photos, I’ve been present at the weddings of their three children. I know all about Clive’s by-pass surgery and Trish’s toe surgery. I know they recently celebrated the birth of their first grandchild.

I’ve gazed in awe at their elaborately printed menus when Trish was hosting a fancy affair and wondered how on earth anyone could still be sitting up after the sixth or seventh course. I perused the long list of delicacies that included something with fins, something with feathers, and something with hooves. I couldn’t pronounce any of the wines or desserts.

I wondered if I should print and share the menu for my dinner……meat loaf left from yesterday, pinto beans soaked overnight and slow-cooked, mashed new potatoes, buttermilk cornbread baked to a golden brown crust, sliced tomatoes from the garden, sliced Vidalia onions, hot chow-chow for garnish, and iced sweet tea before dinner, during dinner, and after dinner. My menu read more like a script from Hee Haw. I decided Trish and I didn’t need to share everything.

Once, when Trish commented, “I wonder why I weigh more than you? We’re about the same age, about the same height, and about the same bone structure. I wonder why that is?”

I couldn’t resist teasing her with, “Do you suppose those eight-course dinners have something to do with that……?”

There were, of course, some similarities. For instance, Trish and Clive were globe-trotters and emails from her were often from other countries. I go to Houston every now and then. We both flew.

Before Skype became a paid service, Trish and I would occasionally call each other up, each of us sitting in front of our computers and gazing self-consciously into a tiny web camera. Sometimes a family member would enter the room and wave and say hello. Between those Skype calls and online correspondence, we learned that we both drove Nissans and that our birthdays were only one day apart, and if we could do the math with the time of birth as well as the difference in time zones, we may actually share the same birthday.

A few months into our new friendship, I heard from 'Patty' in New England. So then we were three, at least for a while. This Patricia Paris and her young husband had purchased an ‘old Victorian’ and were keeping busy with the remodeling. But after that initial introduction, Patty’s emails became shorter and less frequent and I suppose she became totally absorbed with refinishing a mantel or something. Whatever her reasons, she didn’t hang around long. Perhaps it was because she had so little in common with two middle-aged women who talked funny, just in different ways, and drove Nissans.

But Trish and I have persevered, in an on-again, off-again kind of way as time has allowed. So, naturally, this week I was distressed to hear the news that a 7.4 earthquake had struck near Christchurch, New Zealand. I raced to my computer and emailed Trish right away, hoping she was okay and had internet service.

It was such a relief to see her quick response, as follows. “We are all okay but devastated and although minor damage are all hunkered down together here at our house, baby included of course. It is major and my work building is not sound as is my Sons insurance building as is 120 others in the main CBD. It is a nightmare that we never thought would happen. We have power but have to conserve water as the sewerage and water mains are massively hurt. Also, our old copper cables for our landlines but that's another story. Please pray for us all but with that magnitude God was on our side as anywhere else we would have been under. My niece broke a leg but that's about all. xxxx Love you!!”

I never cease to be amazed that I have a friend named Trish in New Zealand and I have actually been 'inside' her home and her life, something that would have never occurred without the internet. And I knew within hours that she and her family were safe, all due to the Internet. That’s all sort of mind-boggling when you think about it.

(Copyright 2010 Patricia Paris
patriciaparis@gmail.com
Patricia Paris is an author/columnist from East Tennessee
Member: Tennessee Mountain Writers, Int'l Women Writers Association, Tennessee Writers Alliance, Chattanooga Writers Guild)