‘Care’ packages from home, containing cookies, crumbled cake, toothpaste, some Kool-Aid – and an almost tangible, ethereal hand on the shoulder that says, “You have not been forgotten.”

I recently reminded an old friend that I had never gotten that picture of her in a bikini she’d promised to send me in ‘Nam. She batted her eyes and coquettishly asked if I’d like for her to take one now.

We both got a kick out of that; two 70-Somethings, giggling like teenagers, comfortable in our long, enduring friendship.*

A slim, gossamer figure clad in a pure white Ao Dai shimmered briefly and as quickly disappeared. Would you imagine that? There are pleasant memories tied to Nam.

© T.P. Woodfork 6/29/2009