Miracles on FB Street

I have been amazed by social media and how it’s allowed us to “keep in touch”. I started on FaceBook a couple of years ago I guess mainly as a tool to be able to share photographs with family and friends. It has morphed into a social event! I absolutely love FaceBook and have been amazed at the people I have found on there and how I have been able to reconnect with some long lost friends and family.

I am organizing my 35th high school reunion next year and plan to use FaceBook as our main source of contacting people. I did our 25th reunion and used Classmates.com at that time but I think a lot of people don’t use that anymore but they do use FaceBook. And those I can’t find on FaceBook, I’m sure I can either find a relative or someone they know that does that can get me their info. Not sure how I end up getting roped into this but I’m pretty sure it’s because I have a hard time forming the word no and no one else wants to do it. They say I’m so good at it… only because they don’t want to do it, I’m sure! But I don’t mind, really, since I DO love to talk. It’s just a little harder because I graduated from high school in Virginia and I live in Georgia. I’ll just have to rely on a great support committee!

Even better than the class mates I’ve found are some of my old friends. Geez, I even found my old next door neighbor that I had when I first moved away from home when I was 18 years old. He was a police officer and he and his wife and little girl lived in the other side of the duplex I lived in. They were pretty much my family away from family and my guardians. He was pretty much my protector. I had a stalker way back then who used to call my house all the time and scare the crap out of me and I’d get scared and think I’d hear someone in the attic or prowling around outside or my stalker would call and not hang up the phone and I’d bang on the wall and he’d come over and pretend to be my husband to try and scare the guy off and when he’d hear his voice he’d hang up. Funny thing was I always thought it was because he really thought this guy was my husband. Turned out (I found out years later) that the guy was a police dispatcher (which is why he always had my phone number since I worked in conjunction with the police department) and he knew my neighbor wasn’t my husband because he knew us both but since he worked with him he was afraid he’d recognize his voice! This was back before caller ID or Call Return or any of that stuff. Anyway, he and his wife had separated and he’d moved away and I’d moved away and somehow we found each other on FaceBook! So weird. But GREAT!

I think my most favorite reconnection that has come about because of FaceBook is my long lost niece. My brother and his ex-wife had a very bitter divorce and through circumstances beyond his control, we lost contact with their kids. The oldest was his step daughter but he always thought of her as his daughter and so did we. After she got married and moved away I had no idea how to contact her and had heard through “the grapevine” that she didn’t want to hear from us so I never reached out. I really missed both of them though. I just wasn’t sure of how to go about contacting them.

Then last summer my sister found her through FaceBook and I through her. I didn’t want to scare her off or overwhelm her and knew I needed to handle it with kid gloves so as not to upset anyone else either. I knew I was going home to Virginia to set up some stuff with the party we had for our parents 60th anniversary so I asked her if she’d mind maybe meeting me for breakfast or lunch or dinner. She agreed and then I asked if she wanted to see her grandparents and she agreed. I knew my parents wanted to see her so I just told them I was taking them to dinner and didn’t tell them we were meeting her. Let me tell you, the looks on their faces when they saw her standing on the sidewalk was priceless and the tears of joy that were shed warmed my heart. It was the first time they had seen each other in I think about 10 years.

My brother with his long lost daughter

With his daughter and his grand daughter he had never met

With his daughter and grand daugter he hadn't seen in like 10 years

My dad with his long lost grand daughter

Even better than that, she came to my mom and dad’s 60th anniversary party and brought her whole family and my brother was there with his new family so he got to see her again too and I think it made him very happy too. Everything isn’t all worked out but these things take time and through the miracle of social networking we have found our little long lost flower and her offspring and those seeds that were planted are taking root and growing and I feel confident that some day we will be able to make a connection with her sister. FaceBook is a miracle worker in my book.

This was my entry for this week’s Writer’s Workshop from Mama Kat at Mama’s Losin’ It! I chose prompt #5.) Social media is an amazing way to reunite with old friends. Describe a good or not-so-good experience you’ve had with it. If you’d like to play along, head on over to Mama’s Losin’ It and hook right on up!