corner view~coffee companion

I don't drink coffee.  I did in college a few times, but it made me feel strange.  So I stopped.  I do drink tea.

Eleven years ago when our middle daughter was an infant, my husband came home from grocery shopping and told me he had found us a babysitter.  I was a bit skeptical, rarely having left the kids with anyone.  But when I met Annie, I liked her so much that we decided to give her a shot.  She had no experience with babies but I didn't care.  "That can be taught," I thought.  It was her heart that was most important. 

Annie was a violinist and college student.  The timing was perfect for her to take on a part time job with us because she had injured her shoulder playing her instrument and she was unable to work the cash register.  It was so long ago that Annie first came to help at our home in California, and I was in a blur as a mom of a baby and a 2 1/2 year old.  I don't remember much except for that Annie was a huge help when she came, the kids adored her and she quickly became part of the family.  She was a quick study.

Eventually we moved to the tropics.  But every year we would find a way to work Annie into our schedule.  She babysat for us many summers back in California where we would visit.  Then she began to travel with us.  We were always so grateful to have the help.

When I was in my 20's I lived with a family while I attended graduate school in Washington, D.C.  They had two young children and I helped them part time in exchange for my room and board.  It was a great arrangement.  I remember when I became a mother, 3000 miles from my family, with just a few friends, I thought to myself, "I need a Theresa."

I had found my Theresa in Annie.

A few years ago Annie had a few months of free time.  Her lease was up in one place and she was getting ready to travel home to see her family, in her native, Iowa.  So we arranged for her to come live with us for a few months.  The only problem was that we didn't have room for her.  No problem, we decided.  We live in warm weather.  So we pitched a large tent in the backyard, put a comfy full sized bed in there, gave her a shelf for her clothes, ran an extension cord for power, a small lamp, and Annie became our tent daughter.

Traveling with someone is different from having someone live with you for a few months.  But we knew it would be fine.  It was Annie.  Yeah it was a tent.  Yeah she had to deal with kids most of the time, even when she was "off," there was a noisy house.  Yeah she had to sleep on the couch a few times when we had heavy rainstorms.  Yeah she had to share a bathroom with the kids.  But it was Annie.

Annie is my "coffee companion."  But remember I drink tea.  Well, Annie introduced me to chai.  Believe it or not, I first had chai just a few years ago.  It was the stuff in the box, concentrated, with sugar.

"You're gonna love this T," she said.  "You're gonna get addicted to this T," she said.  "You're gonna kill me," she said. 

She fixed me a cup, complete with a little milk.  Oh my.  She was right.  Then I got to blame her for getting me hooked.  My little coffee companion.

Now Annie doesn't live with us anymore.  :(  I am good.  I only drink chai as a treat.  I couldn't handle sugar daily.  But whenever Annie and I are together now we always go out for chai.  In airports.  In malls.  To Starbucks.  Or anywhere that serves it.  And we sit and talk and laugh and never run out of things to say.  After all, she's Annie.

Annie is married now.  She married a man from Bali.  While she was our tent daughter the first time (it went so well we did it a couple of years later), she was saving up to travel to Bali.  I remember thinking, "Why is a young lady from Iowa so interested in going to Bali?"  But she was really driven.  And after going the first time she began to learn the language, and then she got a scholarship to study the language intensively.  And she began to play Gamelan music, her shoulder injury was better.

So you see she was being led to the man that she married.  Half way around the world.

Sometimes life is like that.  And guess what?  She got a full scholarship to a graduate school in the same state where we live.

2007

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