Lesley and Julia!

Shortly before my mom immigrated to San Francisco from Scotland, her cousin Lesley had immigrated from England to New York City. They were both in their 20's when they came to America but if it wasn't for Lesley coming to America first and her mom who was my mom's aunt encouraging my mom's parents to let my mom do the same thing, my mom may have never made it to America.  As it turned out neither my mom or her cousin Lesley ever returned to their native countries and both started new lives here in America. Lesley has remained in NYC since her arrival.  She married, had two kids, unfortunately divorced, but continued to enjoy the NYC lifestyle and all that it offered. My mom met my dad, had five children, and joined the Church which had a significant influence on the life she would live.  It really is fascinating to see how the one decision they each made to come to the US impacted their lives.

Shortly after Jack and I arrived in New York for Jack to attend grad school, Lesley and I connected and became fast friends.  While there was the obvious age difference, we seemed to have a lot in common and enjoyed meeting for lunches.  They kindly invited us to Thanksgiving at their amazing NYC apartment, a weekend out at their beautiful summer house in Tuxedo Park, and important events like Julia's high school graduation.  Being newly married myself and far from home, having a family member nearby was nice even if we had just recently met.

Between 2003 when we left NYC and now, there have only been a handful of times Lesley and I have reconnected. So how nice it was when she finally accepted our invitation to escape the cold of NYC and come to Florida for some rest and relaxation.  While the timing turned out to not be ideal, since I literally tested positive for Covid for the first time ever a couple days after they arrived, we still managed to have a lovely time.  Luckily, all they had been looking forward to doing was lounging by the pool and enjoying some warm weather so that's what we did.  Thankfully, they remained covid free after returning to New York!  

Nova couldn't be more happy to have another furry friend in the house so when Lesley asked if it was OK if she brought her dog, I knew someone would be especially thrilled...