Life-Long Friends

by Paula (Bush) McElwee
My best guess is that I attended Junior Girls Week as a first-time camper in 1962. That year I was going into 4th Grade and Debbie Fritz was going into 5th, and both our moms were on the faculty and our siblings were on hand as faculty kids. And somehow, that week, we became friends. And we are friends still. It is weird to us that this is the only camp picture we can find of us together. If anyone has one, we would LOVE to see it. In the hundreds of pics and negatives we have not yet uncovered such a photo. We weren’t just campers together. Once we were old enough we were camp workers together, too. And that meant long walks in spare time, swimming while campers were in class, getting up early to work and then having time off to talk some more.

I’m not sure that most people realize how amazing our friendship is. We didn’t live in the same town until Deb had graduated from college and I was a senior. I moved across the country – Illinois to Western Nebraska to Kansas to California – and that didn’t present any more of a barrier. Deb joined me for a year in Western Nebraska, stayed on for a few when I married and went to Kansas…

We attended each other’s weddings. Deb’s two children are close to my daughter in age – Josh just older, Libbi months younger but in the same grade.

We have always been close. We wrote letters in the early days, and visited each other in between youth rallies and camp. We talked on the phone rarely – the most memorable the day her grandfather died. We have talked each other through all kinds of life events and supported each other as well. Today we IM or call on cell phones (we are in the same calling plan). I get to Illinois on business from time to time, and she and Libbi were here in California for two GREAT weeks this past summer.

All because we met at Bond Christian Service Camp.