I'll be Lucy and You can be Ethel

 When You've Been Friends for Nearly 40 Years, You Don't Need to Go Somewhere Special - Just Visiting Will Do!

It was the fall of 1978 when Cyndi Edwards Standefer and I first met each other at the First United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas.  We were helping to start a new young adult Sunday School Class, and eager to become a part of a new group of friends.  Cyndi and I hit it off immediately - I mean, Good Grief - we had both picked out the same everyday dinner pottery - Royal Doulton Inspiration!

The class that we started at FUMC Austin is still going strong today.  Here is a bit of information about the class in the most current directory.  If you are in Austin on a Sunday, check them out!

Koinonia
Sanctuary Building, Room 210

Koinonia comes from the Greek word for “community.” All are welcome to attend this lively and diverse group of people exploring spiritual, social, and theological issues of faith through extended book studies. Service and fellowship events are also part of group life.

For more information, please contact Caroline Jones at byrdstarr@hotmail or at (512) 233-4834.

First United Methodist Church - Austin, Texas

The Koinonia class holds very special memories for me, as it came to me just after Mitch and I were married and during his law school and my early days of teaching.  For three years that group gave us a community of friends that became like family and a source of strength and companionship.  Cyndi and I were (of course) the primary organizers of anything that the group did!  She started a Girls Needlepoint Bible Study.  Yes, Cyndi is the person who instilled in me a love for the hobby of Needlepoint.  We took a class together and then immediately got started on several projects including the Christmas stockings that hang each year in my home.  I finished Mitch's and mine in 1981 just before we moved to Lubbock and then the girls during the years that they were born.  Cyndi has been working on cushions for the kneelers at her church for who knows how many years!

I think it must have been sometime during the Spring of 1979 when Cyndi and I were shopping one day.  Even though we were both not in a position to buy a lot of things back then, we did enjoy going and "trying things on."  We would give each other opinions about what looked good and what definitely didn't!  This particular day we found ourselves in a dressing room with so many store clothes that we couldn't find our real clothes!  We just sat down on the floor and laughed with each other.  That was when Cyndi said, "We're just like Lucy and Ethel!"  

We also took a Jazzercise Class together, and would often leave complaining to each other about how mean our instructor was to us.  I think we must not have been exerting ourselves enough, or probably laughing at each other and not paying attention, and that got us into trouble.  I am sure we would love taking a Zumba class together now! 

It was a sad day when I drove away from Cyndi's apartment to move to my new home in Lubbock.  It was early in June of 1981.  Mitch was already there working, and I had stayed to finish out the legislative session in Austin where I was working.  Cyndi and I then started the next chapters in our lives, but we have remained close friends ever since.  

Cyndi is the kind of friend where time passing has no bearing on the sentiment.  Two years have gone by since we have seen each other - it was July of 2015 when we were last together.  When she rang my doorbell last week, it took all of about two minutes to be right back where we were when we left off.  Don't you love friends like that?

A beautiful piece of heaven is holding a place for Cyndi and her husband, Tommy here in Colorado. From their home in Azle, Texas, they make it up to their property in Allenspark each summer, and we are so glad because that means that we get to see them.  This year they spent three nights with us on their way back home, and we had a great time!

Here are some photos of our time together:

On the way to the top of Mount Evans - Bristle Cone Pine Trees

Lunch at the Ship Tavern in the Brown Palace - Downtown Denver

At Red Rocks Amphitheater to see the Avett Brothers (7-08-2017)

Tommy and Cyndi's Inaugural Concert at RR

Thank you Cyndi for the gift of your friendship over the years.  You have blessed my life, and for that I am very grateful.  May God bless you richly until we meet again, and until then, my friend...

Get to reading, finishing those cushions, sorting, donating, enjoying Tommy, and dreaming of the day that you are finally at home in Colorado!