Martha and the internet ...August 04, 2008

The internet is an amazing thing. It is a source of information, a way to stay in touch with people you love, the means of finding people you have long since lost, a quick way to pay bills, check out library material, purchase your heart's desire, receive new pictures of your grandchildren, buy music, ad infinitum.

It was the internet that brought me to the quiet lobby of the Founder's Inn in Norfolk, Virginia, July 8… just a few weeks ago.
I met Martha on My Space, thanks to our mutual love of Jackson Browne, and I knew right away we were kindred souls. We talked back and forth through messages, laughed and lamented the state of the world. Martha was there when something troubled me. She dispensed her gentle wisdom as needed.

When I said I was going to Virginia in July, Martha offered to drive 4 hours to meet me! To say I was excited would be a HUGE understatement! I looked forward to seeing my grandchildren and spending time with my daughter and granddaughter in New York but I was actually going to meet Martha! How incredible!

Martha arranged to stay in the same place we were staying. I had been waiting for her, full of excitement, and now she was here… upstairs in her room. So there I sat, watching the elevator, waiting. The doors slid open and a small, lovely woman with silver hair and big blue eyes stepped out! Martha! I would have known her anywhere!

We hugged, stepped back, looked at each other and giggled. She was exactly as I expected! We hugged again.

Martha drove us all over Virginia Beach and we talked! We talked about mothers, children, men, my grandchildren and Martha's desire to have a grandbaby and then we talked some more. Martha took me for lunch at The Jewish Mother, a place where she used to go. I fell in love with it. We ate blintzes and talked some more. We told each other secrets as if we had been friends forever. It was as if we were trying to fit our whole lives into the few hours we had together.

After lunch we walked down by the beach and the 34-foot-high bronze King Neptune statue. A lady kindly took our picture. We stood watching the water and talked. On the way back to the Inn… we talked.

That evening Martha joined my very loud family and me for dinner. Afterwards, my daughter, granddaughter and I rode back to the Inn with Martha. The others went up to the room but Martha and I sat on the porch in large rockers and we talked… about dreams and memories and "that certain summer." It had been such a remarkable day I hated to let it go.

We met the next morning for breakfast and talked some more and then… Martha was gone. I walked back to the room, stopping on the way to sit on a bench and ponder this amazing thing that had happened. If it were not for the internet, Martha and I would have never met.

Martha, I love you and miss you! I have so much more to talk to you about!