This morning, on Good Friday, I’m looking back. I
return to the day 12 years ago, March 25th in 2004. It was one of
those days that became a turn in my life because I met a person who became one
of my best and closest friends.
The first letter of Joe had a subject “Hei” which
is a Finnish greeting for “hello”. He introduced himself as an American
linguist and English teacher. He expressed his interest in Finland. And not
much more was needed when I knew I’d write back to him. It’s always impressive
when a foreigner expresses sincere interest in my country online. Being a
language lover, I thought I might have a whole bunch of interesting
conversations with him – by the time, I had no idea how many we actually had in
all the years.
A month ago, I got a very sad, heartbreaking
message from his family saying he had passed away. He had been sick for quite a
while and – to be honest – I had been afraid of the day when I would get to
know it’s now been his time to go. That day always comes too soon when someone
close to you passes. It always feels things were left unfinished; there’d still
have been so much to say, so much to do, so much to tell…
Joe and I started as pen friends. Our letters were
long and chatty. We talked about languages (mostly English but also Finnish and
some others) but we also talked about other things. It felt like there was no
topic we couldn’t have talked about; lighter or deeper. Very soon, I got the
feeling that once I saw a new letter from him I had a great urge writing back
to him immediately.
After some time, somewhat half a year being
friends, we started doing voice chatting on Skype in addition to letter
writing. By the time, my English oral skills weren’t the strongest and Joe
wanted to help me a bit there. It turned out voice chatting was as much fun as
letter writing. It became a routine for us and we chatted one or two times a
week.
Joe brought so much good into my life. And I know I
did the same to him because we talked about it many times. I learned so much
from him. And I had so much to tell him when he requested information about
Finland and many other things. But one of the biggest things he did was that he
introduced me to country music. I have posted this entry The 5 Meaningful Songs
on here earlier. The first song mentioned in the article, by Garth Brooks,
tells how it turned out.
On March 25th in 2014, we had a voice
chat on Skype. We had a little celebration for our tenth anniversary of
friendship. On April 2nd in 2015, we also had a voice chat on Skype
also having a little celebration for our anniversary of me having fallen in
love with country music ten years earlier. Those were actually some of the last
voice chats we had. We stayed in letter-writing being Joe’s wish because he
wasn’t so well anymore by the time.
When I look back and think about the 12 years it’s
really easy to realize how very meaningful this friendship was to me. And it’s
even easier to realize how different and emptier my life would be if I had
never met Joe – if he had never written to me on that Thursday.
Even if I never had a chance to meet Joe in person
it feels like I had met him. Most of our Skype video calls were long and lasted
for hours. Not being a joke, once we had a real marathon call. We started at
nine o’clock in the evening my time and it was half past six in the morning
when I was finally so tired that I was close to doze off. And being most
certain, there was not even one boring second included in those nine and a half
hours.
Good memories will always live in my mind and
heart. Even if we never met in person we stayed in touch in all the 12 years.
We really were friends until death parted us. But even yet, we’ll still remain
friends in my memories.
