I am the youngest of five children. My closest sibling is a brother, Glen, who is four years older than me. Because of the age difference I was just kind of a tag-along little sister, but when I reached my teen years, Glen and I developed a close relationship and enjoyed each other's company very much. As it often happens in families, we each got married and went our own ways. Glen and his family moved to Florida and soon there was no communication between us at all. It wasn't that there was any friction; there was just no common ground and no reason for us to keep in contact with each other.
We saw each other once a year around Christmas or over the summer and we would chat together, but the rest of the year we would go our separate ways and never have any communication with each other until the next family reunion. Sometimes in passing, we would each lament the distance that had come between the two of us, but there really didn't seem to be any way to resurrect our relationship. In 2008, Glen & his wife moved from Florida to the Washington D.C. area, but even though he was closer geographically it didn't make a difference in how often we communicated together.
My mother loved Scrabble and she passed the love of the game on to her children. In the fall of 2009 when I joined Facebook I was delighted to find that they offered a Scrabble game that you could play with your friends. I began playing with a few people and though I loved it, I soon realized that these people hadn't grown up with it as I had and didn't have the knowledge of the game that I had.
On December 26, 2009, I was enjoying a day free of holiday stress and was sitting at my computer wishing I had someone to play a good game of Scrabble with. I thought of Glen and wondered if he would be interested. Gathering my courage, I finally picked up the phone and called him. He was very agreeable to giving it a try and we were soon playing our first game of Facebook Scrabble. We were hooked. This was real competition. Having grown up playing against the same mother we attacked the game the same way and we both loved to try to out-strategize the other. Since that first time, we have played more than 180 games together.
The best part about our Scrabble playing is that it has opened up the line of communication between the two of us. At first, we talked only Scrabble but gradually we moved on to other topics as well and we began to take more of an interest in each others families and activities.
To restore or renew a relationship someone has to make the first move. I remember sitting at my computer that December day debating whether to give Glen a call. "Why would he want to play with me? Would he be annoyed that I called him? What if secretly he wishes I would not bother him? He's probably too busy anyway." These were only a few of the thoughts running through my mind. However, in the end I made the call and the rest is history.
My reconnection came over a game of Scrabble. However, there are many ways to rekindle a lost relationship. Is there someone in your life that you would love to reconnect with? Take the initiative by contacting them in some way (phone, email, text, etc). I think you will find that they will be glad to hear from you.
Mary Lehman
Secretary
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