31 years ago (32 in less than a month), Dave and I married and set up house in a one bedroom apartment in a beautiful Victorian house in Canandaguia NY. Ric and Kate Berry were the home owners and our all time favorite landlords. We became fast friends with meals together, thrift store shopping and dreaming up projects and business ventures. They helped out a newly married tenants in many ways including lowering the rent! Has that ever happened to anyone else!
Although we wanted to stay in our cozy apartment, life brought us back to our families in the Western NY area. We visited back and forth for a few years till the Berrys moved west, somewhere in Montana I thought. Decades later when life and a job brought us to Cheyenne WY, I decided to get on the internet and see if I could locate Ric and Kate. In less than an hour I found that they were, by Wyoming standards, living just up the road from us in Casper! In November of 2009, just a year into living in Wyoming, I headed out for a residency at Jentel in Banner WY. I had to pass right through Casper so I turned off I-25, drove into town, parked in front of the house the internet said was theirs and knocked on the door. When it opened, there was my friend Kate! 20 plus years had passed but we took up right were we left off and haven't stopped since. Dave and Ric are now hunting buddies and Kate and I are still tossing around ideas for projects and ventures. When I asked Ric to describe what his personal fabric would look like, he was quiet for a minute (make that a second), and then blurted out with a big smile, "tie dyed corduroy!" Only the man with more wild and wonderful stories than you can imagine would come up with that combination. Kate, the calming half of this couple, showed me a green dress that her Irish Auntie made and expertly embroidered with vines, flowers and birds. I took a picture of the dress and used it as inspiration to create Kate's personal fabric. The Berry's section in the LEAP 366 Life Ring will be as original as they are. Their friendship and generosity have rippled through our lives for years and we intend to keep it that way.
1 Comment
Kate berry
5/2/2016 09:53:53 am
Dear Georgia, Our friendship has been a miracle! You and Dave are like a breath of fresh air for us. Thank you, Kate
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