Member-only story
A Stranger Who Quickly Became a Friend
I lost a friend this week. Her name is Barbara Joanne Winter and she made a great impact on my life, as well as the lives of people all over the world.
We first connected in the most magical and serendipitous way. It was on the morning of November 14th, 2012, while we were both in line at the post office in Santa Clarita. I had just made the move to live in Santa Barbara half of my time, so I was tying up some loose ends.
Barbara was standing behind me and made a comment about the package I had under my arm. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but when I told her I was sending a few books to one of my clients, her eyes lit up and we went from strangers to acquaintances in a nanosecond.
She patiently listened to me tell my tale of coming online, after working as a classroom teacher for twenty years and longer than that in real estate, until I was called up to the counter, and that could have been the end of the story. But when I had completed my transaction and saw that she was still at the counter finishing hers, I made the life changing decision to wait for her.
Something else I should share here is that talking to strangers has been a part of who I am all of my life, and it was Barbara who pointed that out to me the next time we connected in person.
