Nights In White Satin

Friends come and go that is just part of life, and all to often childhood friends fall away and get lost in our transition to adulthood. I have been lucky to reconnect with some friends from the past and pick up right where we left off. I guess a true friend is not measured by time or distance and they will come back into your life when, and if, they are meant to.

I have one friend from high school, Strelsa, whom I have not seen or heard from since graduation. I am curious as to what has become of her and I would love to see her again. She was a bit of a wounded soul and I found comfort in that. We spent a lot of time together in our senior year, each battling our demons, she tried to commit suicide, I was dealing with the sudden death of my father, we were tragic myths in the making. But after graduation I moved to another town with my mom and I heard she married a boy from our class. We got on with our lives, grew up, and moved further away from one another. The other day I was perusing one of the high school reunion sites and saw that Strel's older sister had joined. What the hell I thought, I am going to send her a message and ask her to let Strel know I would love to hear from her. I know my message was read but there was no reply and I have yet to hear from Strel.

The last thing I heard about her was she had divorced, her high school boyfriend-husband came out of the closet a year or so into the marriage, she was devastated I'm sure. Looking back on it, all the signs were there but what did we know of such things in 1973? We were sheltered from a lot in our little town and no one spoke about such things. I heard she was modeling, good for her I thought. She was darling, all of five feet tall (obviously doing petite modeling) with the longest eyelashes and thickest hair I had ever seen on anyone. She had the ability to light up a room just by entering it, she had a special charisma about her.

But in hind site I suspect she always felt like an outsider. I didn't think about it back then but her father ran a junkyard of sorts so I suppose they weren't exactly well off. She would wear her little brothers pajama tops to school (yes she was that small), and while she looked very chic in them I doubt that is why she was wearing them. I found her refreshing, and fun, and a bit quirky. In a lot of ways she kept to herself but she was my friend, and she made the world a much more interesting place.

I can understand why she distanced herself from that world and got away from it, and I can understand why I will probably never hear from her. But I still wonder about her and remember all of the fun times we had together, to this day I can not listen to Nights In White Satin with out thinking of her. She LOVED that song and would play it over, and over, and over again. I would love to see her again but in all probablitiy I won't. Wherever you are Strel this old friend hopes you are happy, healthy, and comfortable in your own skin.