My dear friend Florence, known affectionately by all of us as Flobell died the other day. With her went a big chunk of my heart and my life. We were deeply connected, even though many miles kept us separated through most of our adulthood. A testament to the truth that when a friendship runs that deep it is everlasting.
We were never much for taking pictures of each other, or ourselves, both shunning the camera for various reasons, so this picture is one of the few I have of us together. This was 2011, in her hometown of Cadillac, Michigan, where I was doing a book signing. Even though Flo didn’t read books then, she came to support me and to spend some time at my table. Her snarky wit was fun to listen to as she encouraged shoppers to stop and buy my book. A few did, while others just hurried by this silly woman.
Our friendship goes back many years to when we both worked at the same small drive-in restaurant in a suburb of Detroit. She was a waitress and sometimes cook, and I was a roller-skating car hop. And not a sometimes cook. Perhaps the owner knew better than to put me in the kitchen. 🙂
One of the things that drew us together as friends was sharing an offbeat, irreverent, look at life and humor. I’m going to share some stories about the most daring and silly things we did in more blog posts in coming weeks, but the memory that is uppermost on my mind today is of the last visit we had when she came from Michigan to Texas a few years ago and stayed with me for a week.
Before she came, she failed to warn me that she had one vital dietary request, and that was to get a Diet Coke, or Diet Dr. Pepper, from a restaurant every day. Not soda from a can or a bottle. The reason had something to do with the right kind of carbonation that could only be found in a tall cup of soda from a fountain. I don’t know about that. I rarely drink soda from can or bottle or paper cup, but I took her word for it.
And it was a small ask.
The closest place to get a fountain drink where I live is this family-owned small restaurant called Wanna Burger. A play on the name of a popular hamburger chain Whataburger.
After our first visit there she fell in love with the food, which is high praise from a woman who was a professional cook her whole life, in restaurants she worked at as well as those she owned. So, everyday we would end up going to her new favorite place for her dose of caffeine and end up staying for lunch. She tried almost everything on the menu and convinced me to get out of my rut of my favorite sandwich and try something new. She was always the more daring of our dynamic duo.
After the second or third day of us driving around in my 2014 Ford Escape she commented that she was surprised that in six years I’d only driven 50,000 miles. I reminded her that I was an old lady who only drove to the store and back. Or to Wanna Burger for her fountain drink.
A day or two later she commented again about the mileage and added that her car was several years newer than mine, and it already had 150,000 miles on it. That’s when she said she wanted to buy my car. Of course I thought it was a joke. Almost everything could be a joke with Flo as that was often her favorite way of communicating. So I didn’t think anything about the comment until she said it again the next day.
Did I mention that she was the most daring one?
All of a sudden I was taken back to those early days of our friendship when we did the most outrageous things. Could she? Could I? How would we make this happen?
“Well, you do understand I’d need another car.”
“I’m sure there’s a dealership around here.”
Of course, and of course we ended up at the Ford dealership to test drive some cars.
An adventure, just like when we were young.
What fun.
Turns out there was a car that I was interested in buying and Flo was willing to pay the Blue book value of my car.
The next major question was how would she get the car to Michigan? Her response was that she’d figure that out once we got the whole deal put together. She had to get the money, and I had to time the purchase of the new car to guarantee that I’d have transportation.
A bit of a juggling act for both of us, but we made it happen. A few weeks later, I was the proud owner of a 2020 Ford Escape Hybrid, and she was the proud owner of a 2014 Ford escape. Not a hybrid but that didn’t matter to her.
She came back to Texas with a friend and her grandson Aiden. They flew down with plans to drive back together to Michigan in her new car. Flo gave the keys to her grandson, and I’m not sure if she ever got them back.
From what I understand the car is still in Michigan. Aiden still loves it. And I think Flo knew that the car would be his even from that first day when he got in the driver’s seat and was so excited about the features, especially the great sound system.
R.I.P dear friend, and DO NOT PLAY TRICKS ON THE ANGELS!