Summer Vacation Part 4.

It's Been 22 Years.

When I first moved to Aviano, Italy we lived in an apartment on the 2nd Floor.  There was a family that lived on the first floor that had two kids.  A girl named Halina who was my age and a boy named Willy who I think was about 4 years younger.  Halina and I became the best of friends.  We did everything together for the 4 years that we lived in Italy!! We were like sisters. We used to play house, ride our bikes all over Aviano, spent all day and night at the pool, went exploring in the woods, had many many sleepovers, went to school together, etc. 

The summer of 1988 is when we left Italy to move to Goldsboro, NC.  The was one of the saddest day of my life. That was the last time I saw Halina.  We would write to each other every week but as time passed  our letters started to slow down and then eventually stopped.  We lost touch.

Thanks to Facebook, she found me. After 20 years.  It was great to fill each other in on what we have been up to in the last 20 years.  She posted some old pics of us from back in the day.  It brought back so many memories.

Since I knew she was living in Miami, and since we were only 45 minutes from Miami during our summer vacation, I texted her and told her I was near.  We were both SUPER EXCITED that we were finally going to see each other after 22 years!!

We spent the day at the pool with her daughter, then went to her house, met her boyfriend Walter, ordered pizza, and talked and laughed and reminisced all night.  She was the same Halina from 22 years ago.  SWEET, FUNNY, LOVELY!!  I had a WONDERFUL time with her and am so HAPPY we were able to reconnect.