I thought I was at the end of my rope. I didn't know if I'd be able to swing a new car payment, mortgage and just your day to day bills. I was considering selling the Thunderbird. I was still a Henshaw, so behind closed doors, I was sad, but once I went outside, I was always happy, or so I thought.
In the basement of Accident Fund was a concession stand that was run by the Blind Commission. It was a small store that sold pop, candy, sandwiches and snacks to the building tenants. The man that supervised the blind employees was in the building every Tuesday and Thursday. His name was Abe.
He was around his early sixties. He and his wife had owned a small mom and pop grocery store in the 1960's that had been burned to the ground in the riots. He went to work for the State and managed the blind stands in several office buildings across Michigan. He was a handful!
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| My friend Abe |
Every day I would go down to the store he'd always have some compliment about how I was dressed or how pretty I was. He called me "Pretty Lady." Even the girl who ran the stand only knew me as "Pretty Lady." It was nice to hear at a time that I didn't feel so pretty.
In May, 1990, I was down stairs on a break. I must have been carrying the world on my shoulders as he came over and sat with me. I was the only one in the break room. He asked me my name and I responded, "Pretty Lady" and laughed so loud that we both couldn't contain ourselves.
We were both full of bullshit and could go for hours chewing the fat and making each other laugh. He wanted to know why I had been so down lately and I told him there was no reason, I wasn't down.
He had watched me for a long time and I always had a smile on my face and my laugh was contagious. He knew some thing was wrong, "Man problems?" I snickered. If he only knew!
We talked often when I went downstairs and he notices I was losing a lot of weight and suggested he take me to lunch one day. I told him no, but he was persistent.
He wasn't going to buy me lunch, he was going to take me to his buddy's sandwich shop and make me a sandwich. Abe knew every body and every body was his friend. He could say things to you that anyone else would say it and you'd never talk to them again but not Abe. He just had a way about him.
We started going to lunch everyday. He'd meet me outside and we'd walk to the sandwich shop. I didn't want to eat. I had no appetite, but he'd make me a PB&J every day and make sure I ate every crumb of it.
He was older than my father and he didn't back away from asking questions I did not want to answer. We got to know one another. He was married and had two sons who were grown. He had some grandchildren as well. He painted signs on the side for grocery store windows to advertise their sales of the week. He was tight with his money.
He came over to my house one Saturday after he delivered his signs. We had talked about where each of us lived and I lived by one of his accounts. I was out mowing the lawn when he stopped by and I had on a bikini top. As soon as he came around to the back, I went inside to put a t-shirt over me. For years he teased me about this! I told him it was because I knew he was a dirty old man and he told me it was because I was a prude. Lord, if he only knew my days with Killer!
He talked to me for hours that day about why I didn't think I could swing the mortgage and car payment. He told me I was selling myself short and to not think because some jackass walked out on me, that I didn't deserve every thing I had and more!
I kept the car and I made it. Things were tight for a while, but life changes. Abe remained my friend for years. He was like a father to me. I still think of him often and remember all the words of wisdom he bestowed upon me over the years of our friendship.
He brought my best friend in to my life as well. She had been on the peripheral edges of my life, but in 1990, he dropped her right smack dab in the middle. Tina Marie. I don't know how I would have survived without her.
We had become acquainted through the trials and tribulations of Michael and Killer. In late 1990, I was planning a vacation. I needed to get away and I asked her if she wanted to go with me. She was married and had a son, but some thing told me she needed to get away as much as I did. I was planning on going at Christmas and I knew this was not a good time for every one,but it was a chance to get away for an extended period with little vacation time used.
She asked her husband and he was not happy that she would even consider going with another woman at Christmas time. He had taken the buy out from General Motors and was building a home for them in Mulliken, which to me seemed two worlds away when you drove out there.
She said she'd leave after Christmas and eventually some one gave. I drove down to spend Christmas with my parents and she flew in the day after Christmas. I picked her up at the airport and we both experienced our first "all girls vacation!" What a time we had!
We went to Universal Studios for a day. And then we headed to the beach. We stayed at Indian Rocks beach, where Michael and I had stayed, but it was different, there had been a hurricane that came through and they were rebuilding the beach.
We spent hours in the sun! We played paddle ball in the water, went to movies, and I instructed her on Muffy's Water Aerobics!
Tina Marie had bought me a stuffed bear one day to cheer me up. It was an expensive bear, her name was Muffy Vanderbear and she came with a whole wardrobe of clothes. At the time Biff and Muffy were preppy names when preppy was just being introduced. I took to being Muffy as Tina Marie thought I was a bit stuffy, I guess.
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| Tina Marie & Cindy Marie |
She only knew me from the office where I always was dressed to the nines. Her first impression was that I carried myself like I owned the place, but while others would not approach me, she knew I put my pants on one leg at a time and she liked me.
She came over to my house one day and my parents were there. I was in the back yard hauling dirt to make a flower garden in the sandbox the previous owners had left. She had expected my parents to be like me, all dolled up and regal,but was surprised to see they were normal folks, down to earth and she was shocked to see me doing manual labor. She didn't think that I would stoop so low as to do yard work. She was not expecting to see me in grungy yard clothes. I don't know what she was expecting, that I'd have hired help or be wearing a evening gown in the yard, but she was surprised that I was normal, just like every one else, when I wasn't at work.
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| Muffy |
She came to realize I kept my distance from people I worked with. I held very few close friendships and never allowed myself to get friendly with too many. We hit it off and we have been best of friends for over 25 years now.
Our time in Florida went by so fast. Tina Marie saw a side of me that I do not share with many. I will do and say any thing for a good laugh. One night we put on our spandex and took a run alone the beach. Janet Jackson had just released a new album and I must have played that over and over on that vacation mimicking Janet in her video. We laughed non stop!
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| Lido Beach |
So many memories from that week. Who would have known what was in store for us once we returned home.
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