Famous Last Words
By Barbara LoMonaco
Oh those dreaded words! But here was my trusted, very best friend calling me and telling me that she was fixing me up on a blind date. A blind date! Was she out of her mind? We were juniors in high school and she and I had been the best of friends since first grade. We had grown up together, shared our secrets, shared our parents and had laughed and cried together. Did she want to end our friendship here and now? She must have been crazy thinking that she was going to fix me up with her boyfriend's friend. She had never even seen this guy and here she was insisting that we were going to double date and go to Disneyland. And the date was tonight! Was she crazy? I was not going to go out with some strange geek, and I was especially not going to be stuck with that geek at Disneyland for hours and hours. Couldn't we go to a movie instead? At least if we were going to a movie, it would be dark and I wouldn't have to talk to him or look at him.
My friend, Sue, and I had a huge fight. She insisted that I was going on this date, and I insisted that there was no way that I was going. Back and forth we argued. She said that I was just being stubborn - like that mattered. She said that if I didn't go, she couldn't go - like guilt was going to make any difference to me. Who cared? We were at a complete impasse.
I decided to talk to my mother. I knew she would be on my side and back me up. She always did. To my surprise my mother told me that she thought I should go. I couldn't believe my ears. What was my mother doing on Sue's side of the argument? My mother said that I really enjoyed going to Disneyland and, since Sue was going, too, she knew that I would have a good time. Sue and I always had good times together. Then, after the date, we could talk on the phone for hours and hours going over all of the details again and again. After all, it was only for one short evening. My mother said to me, "You're just going to Disneyland - you're not going to marry the guy!"
Famous last words! Not only did I go to Disneyland on that blind date, but four years later I did marry that very same guy! And now, some thirty years later, my blind date, Frank, our three sons and I still tease my mother about her famous last words. And I am still the very best of friends with Sue - who is more like a sister to me than a friend. We still share our secrets and our memories and she still tells me that I am stubborn. Well, we all know which one of us is the stubborn one - and it's not me! She never gives up until she gets her way. And after all of these years she still gives me a hard time about not wanting to go on that blind date. Who knew it would turn out the way that it did? Thanks, Sue.
